Air Show

Cloudless thunder                                                  

splits the sky

as white planes rise

on red fire.

Vertically

to apogee,

they rocket

then fall

screaming

back to ground-

zero

to soar again in glory

as the cheering crowd

shrieks for more!

From my backyard,

I see small birds reel,

made awkward  with fear

when the fighter steeply banks

just past my line

of defiant trees. 

The afterburner’s thrust

can both exhilarate

and annihilate.

Proud simians,

faster than eagles

dropping like

thunderbolts,

we are perfect

raptors -

we are masters

of gravity.

(3 May 2014)