For All Our Brothers Who Fell From The Sky

(For Roger Herrick and his brother,Capt. Jim Herrick, USAF, MIA)

Darkness falls without a sound
that mortal ears will ever hear,
a black lace curtain, swirling down,
the falling of a crystal tear.

So quick it cuts away the sun,
a teardrop on a candle flame,
and darkness comes to mark the place
that's empty now but for a name.

But many times
'tween dusk and dawn,
half-hidden in the early mist,
we think of you as you once were,
bright and laughing, sunlight kissed.