He might have scorched his hat

and brushed down a star

as one dewy dusk he felt himself falling

- a soft fall - surprising -

over the Starnbergersee

the air warm spicy

still with the noonheat in it

as he made a long languorous descent

an airman with a machinegun

and high leather boots

- officers' boots

swinging under the silk canopy

of his parachute

and dropping dropping towards this inland sea

whose loop widened into a mirror

of Europe's central sea

as below him he saw

the limber leg of Italy

Athens and the Cyclades

then on the far rim next France and Holland

the timber leg of Britain

fenced by ocean

and not for the taking - at least not yet -

his slow decent was like rising into a victory so famous

the shades of Alexander and Napoleon

- all the great generals - would be jealous

yes this smallholder

this petit caporal would one day inherit

an estate so enormous

the world itself could not contain it

From The Invasion Handbook, published by Faber & Faber, price £12.99.