The Engine Cowling
Let engine cowling rivets
………. adhere. Let hydraulic systems operate
flaps without interruption
………. and electrical signals work as expected
O 747
………. that carries Glaucus across the Atlantic
and slants down over the brief
………. Mediterranean to the Grecian shore,
Keep him safe. Not long ago
………. flying required noticeable bravery
as a bold Frenchman, not to
………. say Dayton Ohio’s bicycle-making
brothers, ascended on frail
………. boxes into an alien windstream, never
questioning propriety
………. but taking on challenge as their domain.
When their eyes teared with the wind,
………. did they fear wind? Although they climbed the breezes
of our own century, they
………. seem ancient as Leonardo or Fulton.
They were gallant without guilt
………. as they rose up, and expected to return —
after ingenuity
………. and courage sustained them their moment of release
from the ponderable weight
………. of gravity — to accept the gratitude
of their descendants. But they
………. prepared us Dresden’s fire and Nagasaki’s.
Are we grateful for the death
………. that drops on us from flying mental engines
the Renaissance invented
………. with enlightened conceit? If we beg pardon,
as we dig holes for ourselves,
………. all right; but if we ascend, separated
from grief’s ground without terror
………. or foreboding, we add complacency to
wickedness, idiocy,
………. and engineering. Fear death. Anxiety
mothers and fathers souls
………. giddy with vacuum — otherwise orphaned.
by Donald Hall
from The Museum of Clear Ideas
Ticknor & Fields, 1993