The Blackout Poem by Gert Strydom

From childhood days darkness
covered me as a nightly cloak,
no animal or man or ghoul
could frighten me

but now driving across the border
into enemy territory, with lights dimmed,
blacked-out it was something else
that played havoc on the senses
and the shuddering and at times jumping armoured car
did nothing to comfort my fears

of running smack bang into a enemy battle tank,
of driving direct into an enemy landmine field
and although every bush and tree was yielding,
the moon climbing in the sky more silver than white
made everything seem more surreal, more unreal
like in a strange nightmare dream,
where you sense that the ending
is going to be terrible and bloody

and then suddenly in front of us a bright light did blaze
in the dark night,
revealed, uncovered, exposed every vehicle
but it was only members
of the forward scouting party
who were guiding us into a forward encampment.