West Chester, Pennsylvania. US.
“(I fly a powered paraglider. Recently, I had a remarkable flight above and among the clouds. This was a first for me, so I commemorated the occasion with this bit of prose. I hope your readers enjoy it.)”
Morning Enchantment
Morning mist met me
as I left the RV.
I smiled when I looked skyward.
This was going to be special.
Long I’ve dreamed, to fly
among and above the clouds,
though in two years of flying
my marvelous magic lawn chair,
the chance has always eluded me.
That would change today.
I laid my white wing gingerly
on the damp, dew licked grass,
checking, and double checking
my alignment with the soft puffs of wind
that brushed my cheeks so faintly,
and struggled to coax the ribbons
of the windsocks from their poles.
Once hooked in,
I ran the motor full speed
aimed just above the wing,
making sure all was well
while making my own wind
for what came next.
As I released the throttle
I began to move forward.
My wonderful wing always wants to fly.
It did not disappoint, today,
as it leapt to life over my head.
A squeeze of the throttle,
a tug on the brakes,
a bit of a run,
and I was FREE!
The bondage of gravity broken,
I was now in flight,
the captain of my own ship
in three dimensions.
The local field and sky soon
became crowded with others,
So I sought solace in another place,
farther afield.
Flying down low,
I practiced my steering control
by following the rambling drainage swales,
They seemed to meander aimlessly
through a magnificent cornfield.
I played hide and seek with a deer,
who tried to escape detection there,
between the rows of stalks.
I chased a red-tailed hawk
for a mile at 50 feet,
over an endless field of soybeans.
Then higher, I climbed,
through a misty hole in the heavens,
where I saw my morning shadow,
wrapped in all the colors of the rainbow,
flying on the cloud’s edge before me,
as if to keep me company, in that place
where the world faded away
and I became alone with the sky.
And higher, still, I climbed,
to view the great blue infinity
that stretched forever
above a perfect white carpet
of cotton candy beneath my feet.
Then, suddenly nervous that
I could no longer see the field,
I chased after the misty hole that
was slowly trying to run away,
and flew back below the aerial meringue
to reconnect with the other world I came from.
Finally, following forty-two
fantastic minutes of flight,
I set my trims to half an inch,
killed the motor at 100 feet,
silently descended from my waking dream
into a gentle warm breeze
and landed like a pile of bricks.
I’m still smiling.
© Kevin. 2007.
More Cloud Poetry
From Year 4 at Longfields Primary School, Bicester, UK
