The War in the Air
By Howard Nemerov
About Howard Nemerov
The War in the Air
For a saving grace, we didn't see our dead,
Who rarely bothered coming home to die
But simply stayed away out there
In the clean war, the war in the air.
Seldom the ghosts come back bearing their tales
Of hitting the earth, the incompressible sea,
But stayed up there in the relative wind,
Shades fading in the mind,
Who had no graves but only epitaphs
Where never so many spoke for never so few:
Per ardua, said the partisans of Mars,
Per aspera, to the stars.
That was the good war, the war we won
As if there was no death, for goodness's sake.
With the help of the losers we left out there
In the air, in the empty air.
What it means
For a saving grace, we didn't see our dead- Unlike the war on the ground, air battles did not see the bloodshed that the ground battles did because if you were shot out of the air, you would disappear below
The third stanza- The fallen soldiers had no graves, only epitaphs, which is a memorial gravestone with no actual grave. Per ardua per aspera means "Through struggle to the stars" and is the motto of the division Nemerov served in the air force.