A Wing And A Prayer

I read a rather disturbing book last year - We Need To Talk About Kevin. It wasn’t written poorly, but the story was horrifying. Not getting into the details of it, there’s one thing I particularly liked in it – the name of a travel company, A Wing and A Prayer. Initially, I had no clue what it meant but even then, I was fascinated with it. It was the only positive, hopeful thing in the entire book and I’m glad I Googled it up.

Here goes the story: during the World War 2, a plane is shot. It has lost one of its wings. The captain asks a clerk if he knows what happened to that plane and the clerk affirms that he does: it was shot and it is coming on a wing and a prayer.  

I can’t pinpoint what exactly I find so enthralling about this poem that was written about the incident. It’s just one of those things that are hard to explain. Normally, I’m not a big fan of poems because I believe I fail to grasp the poetic meaning, that deep emotional stuff that you literally need to decode like the teachers taught you in high school. I was never good at it. This poem, though, it’s pretty straightforward. It talks about struggles, hard ship, perseverance and faith. With one motor gone, we can still carry on.

It’s self-explanatory, thank God!

One of our planes was missing

Two hours overdue

One of our planes was missing

With all its gallant crew

The radio sets were humming

We waited for a word

Then a noise broke

Through the humming and this is what we heard

Comin' in on a wing and a prayer

Comin' in on a wing and a prayer

Though there's one motor gone

We can still carry on

Comin' in on a wing and a prayer

What a show, what a fight, boys

We really hit our target for tonight

How we sing as we limp through the air

Look below, there's our field over there

With just one motor gone

We can still carry on

Comin' in on a wing and a prayer

-        - Harold Adamson and Jimmie McHugh