Exercise Tiger

April 28, 1944    
Devon, England    
     
It was only a planned rehearsal    
or so it was meant to be    
taking place on the beach      
of Slapton Sands, Devon    
for the invasion of Normandy.      
     
But coordination and communication    
don’t always go as planned,    
resulting in not only friendly-fire injuries    
but the death of 749 American servicemen      
by e-boats of Nazi Germany.    
     
April 28, 1969    
Devon, England    
     
I was only ten-years-old    
the first time I saw my father cry,      
tears as warship missiles      
launching from his eyes      
down the channels      
of creviced facial lines.      
     
His grey irises became clouds    
dispersing drops of water    
from the curve    
of his sharp jawline.      
     
The shadow of a pillar    
extended as a sky-scraper      
high into the ether above me    
names I could barely read    
carved on its plate.    
     
I was only ten-years-old    
and yet I remember      
just as he remembered      
those who had lost    
to so needless an error.      
     
Because those who are honored    
through our memory      
can never forgotten      
in our current reality.      
     
I later learned      
it was a massacre      
silenced for decades.    
     
I don't know why.    
     
Whoever does    
over something like this?    
I imagine military forces    
were embarrassed.      
     
But they say the sacrifice    
prevented even greater tragedy      
across the bloody sands    
of Normandy’s beach.      
     
I'm not so certain      
it's something I believe.    
I am pretty certain    
the families of the deceased    
and my father's grief    
would both agree with me.