Hangar Flying

What is it about flying that inspires poetry? Pilots know.

Take-off
By Marjorie Johnson

Push the throttle
Engine roars
Faster and faster
Raise the nose
Land falls away
Gray sky
Silver bay
Salt ponds glow
Pink orange fog
Climb the winds
Through angel-hair curtains
Over ants on gray ribbons
Housetops and turquoise jewels
Clouds flash across mirror lakes
Shadows cross valleys painted with crops
Green and brown patches in a mustard sea
Mountains asleep in the snow
Rise into the soul of the sky.

Marjorie flies out of PAO and hopes that you have flown under the fog and over the salt ponds, unbelievably pretty.

Published with permission from the author.

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