Sidewinder Flight
30 Nov 2019Birdnose
Sidewinder Flight(with apologies to John Gillespie Magee, Jr., 1922-1941)
Oh! I have slipped the docking clamps of Lave
And streaked out of the bay on purring thrusters;
Out of mass lock I’ve climbed, and joined the light-streaked rave
of supercruise, — and done a hundred maneuvers
You have not dreamed of — looped and fuel-scooped and swung
Deep in the airless silence. Interdicted someplace,
I’ve chased the elusive escape vector, and flung
My eager craft into the uncanny halls of witchspace....
Deep, deep through the mysterious gray,
I’ve high-waked into other systems with easy grace.
Where never skimmer, or even Condor strayed —
And, while I flew restlessly through the eternal night
Of the untrespassed sanctity of space,
– Put out my hand, and touched the collision warning light.