The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #56732   Message #2935651
Posted By: wysiwyg
27-Jun-10 - 03:35 PM
Thread Name: Mudcat Poetry Corner
Subject: RE: Mudcat Poetry Corner
Author of the below, Ellen Waterston, was Saturday's offering on The Writer's Almanac. I just cannot keep it to myself.

~S~

====

After ten hours of trying
the instructor undid
my fingers, peeled
them one by one
off the joystick.
"You don't need
to hold the plane
in the air," he advised.
"It's designed to fly.
A hint of aileron,
a touch of rudder,
is all that is required."

I looked at him
like I'd seen God.
Those props and struts
he mentioned, they too,
I realized, all contrived.
I grew dizzy
from the elevation
from looking so far
down at the surmise:
the airspeed of faith
underlies everything.
Lives are designed
to fly.