Notch-tailed cadets
take turns in the traffic pattern
without benefit of control tower,
sweeping downwind,
shouldering baseleg,
gliding into low approach,
dipping, diving under
a graveled bridge along
Old Creamery Road,
emerging upwind, into
a steep Immelmann turn
against a peach and mauve glow
on a September evening,
chattering and fluttering afresh
into the traffic pattern
of young barn swallows,
dark above a flash of rosy tan,
crosswind, downwind,
for yet another spin.
(2006)
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Love that Joy ride
Very nice! Great imagery.
Can you tell that my husband was an air traffic controller?
I should have guessed! 😀
It’s a beautiful poem – which of you wrote it.
Just me, but when controllers are together, even after decades of it, their arms are vectoring while they tell stories from an encounter using those terms!
Just you has done VERY well!
He did get a kick out of it!
I love the swooping imagery of barn swallows in flight.
Wonderful poem, Joy!
Great poem!!! 🙂