Alone, I take a flight to see some friends,
I gaze out over ocean from the clouds
and marvel, as the plane I’m in ascends
with all of us above the earthly crowds.
From gravity itself we’ve all been freed.
Like Shakespeare said, how like a god our sense,
and what a piece of work we are, indeed,
but then, as if to offset opulence,
behind, I hear what loosens my aplomb.
One youngster, in attempt to appertain
the wonder of flight, loudly asks his mom,
“When you flush, does it go out of the plane?”
We’re noble — heaven’s stars produced our birth —
yet humbled, since we’re formed from dust and Earth.
James Ph. Kotsybar owns Chaotic Exotics orchid nursery. Publication credits include Poetic Justice, Prophetic Voices, 2AM Magazine, EarthWords, Orchids (first poem in this magazine of the American Orchid Society since its 1932 inception), The Bubble and Askew. He has performed at Llhasa Club (Hollywood), Beyond Baroque Gallery (Santa Monica), The Los Angeles Performing Arts Center, R.A.I.L. – Readers And Interested Listeners (Santa Barbara County) Santa Barbara Poetry Festival, Ventura Artists’ Union Gallery, KCSB 91.9 FM (regular guest), Santa Barbara Channels 17 & 21 (“Green Screen” poetry videos ) TAP TV ( “We The People”), KDB-93.7 FM (for National Poetry Month).
Featured Image: “Black Billed Magpie” by by John James Audubon.
Good dose of reality.
Thanks, Linda — True Story!
The Black-billed Magpies by John James Audobon
The Black-billed Magpies painted by John Audobon
appear like samples found in a biology
textbook: the upper flying down, the lower one
upon a twig it grasps—claw-clean ecology.
The tail’s half of its length. Its torso’s black on top,
with a white belly, outer wings, and shoulders. We
see th’ inner wings of iridescent blue—not taupe—
and green, spread out. It helps identifying them.
We see these forest/meadow gleaners grip and drop.
They almost look like scientific specimens,
because of the precision in how they are drawn;
but not quite, since they seem so free—not strategems.