Poem upon the 32nd anniversary of disarming an F-111 fighter-bomber


the purity
of the pivot
of a hammer swung happily
against the cold metal
of a machine
designed for death

bang bang
you're disarmed

oh the joy and the taste
of the air
of that equinox night
transformed by our
precious
little
act

upon the cusp of the dawn
of the first day of spring
birds wake
we smile
one more warplane
refuses to fly

---

In the early hours of March 21st, 1990, my good friend Mike Hutchinson and I entered USAF Upper Heyford, just north of Oxford, and disarmed an F-111 nuclear-capable fighter-bomber with household hammers. We called our action the Upper Heyford Ploughshares action – inspired by the US Plowshares Movement and by the verses of the prophet Micah:
"And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not wage war against nation, nor shall they prepare for war. Instead, everyone shall sit beneath their vine and fig tree, and none shall make them afraid." Micah 4:3–4