Poem upon the third anniversary of disarming an F-111 fighter-bomber
"For swords into ploughshares
the hammer has to fall"
Charlie King
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 exhausted warplane
refuses to fly
"For swords into ploughshares
the hammer has to fall"
Charlie King
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 exhausted 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
"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
