The Decree of a Flyer - Another Poem That I Wrote

The Decree of a Flyer

dedicated to Irving Layton

And me, a poet, happiest when I compose poems:
No Irving, happiest when I fly.

                        To be extended into a machine, and to be all

                        that it does and the doer of that,

                        I am then responsible for fate.

                        Holding tight to control, to feel the flesh and plastic

                        as a connection within a body,

                        To sense through wings like nerves,

                        Like arms outstretching an earthly heaven—

                        All that can be felt.

                        Alive in weight and lighter than air,

                        I fight to go higher,

                        To span the world on spread wings—a god.

                        To open the clouds, to tumble and bounce,

                        To pulsate with life, with love of flight.

                        Not here I am to mock the eagle,

                        For I am greater—the eagle must mock me.

                        Full with no jealousy, I see it is me,

                        The eagle should rave with defeat—I am endless.

                        I am endless, for now I have become a new life,

                        An evolved man capable of flight.

                        A breed that will devour this earth, this universe,

                        With a will to be airborne, to be machined to perfection:

            To walk tall,

            To fly taller,

            To kick God in the ass!