Lament for Melina

Pan Am 103 - Revisited


The skies were falling. Falling down
Debris like snowflakes through the cold December night.
How many dead
In the Scottish town of Lockerbie?
One-Hundred ? Two ?
Two-Fifty or more?
And whatever for?

"What does it matter...One day more or less?"
Last words from London in a mother’s ear
Why did tears just roll from my eyes?
To envision her precious life
As it fell from the sky...
Like snowflakes?

And so the skies fell
Can anyone say what for?
Yet another madman closing
Yet another door.
And, Oh, How the skies fell...
Raining fire,
Destroying hopes,
Dreams...

May God have mercy on their souls…


ELAshley
December 21, 1989


This poem is a revision of a poem written exactly one year earlier, the night of Melina Kristina Hudson's death and the destruction of Pan AM 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The desire to revise the first poem was prompted by a telecast marking the one-year anniversary of the bombing of Pan Am 103. In this broadcast I was touched by the last words Melina spoke to her mother by telephone. Melina was a college student in England; where, I can't remember, but at any rate, she was traveling home to visit with her family over the Christmas holidays. Melina was not even scheduled to fly home that particular night; She had managed to secure a seat on an earlier flight. Melina called home to tell her mother she would be home a day early.

"What does it matter; one day more or less..."


..::The Original::..

Pan Am 103


Skies fell, falling down
So close to Christmas...
How many dead in the Scottish town of Lockerbie?
One-hundred...Two-hundred...
Two-fifty. More ?

...And so the skies fell.
Raining fire.
Destroying hopes...
And Dreams...


ELAshley
December 2188