An Epic on Childhood- 6 - "Where the Jet Engines Roar"
the brood of kites
bursts open
star-flight
inventing
a new universe
opens slow, like flowers
airplanes on high?
a mysterious fear,
wings that don't flap
but soar through the ether!
the little boy un-found
gawped in awe
at the big thunderbirds'
display of art
not knowing one day
metal wings would ferry
him too across
the sea and sky
to big man lost -
flaming like a pie!
Thunderbird -- Oberon Zell-Ravenheart
"Thunderbirds" is an interesting metaphor for jet planea that emphasizes their noise and speed. Indeed, in 1953 the US Air Force used the same name for its air demonstration squadron. However, in the AQmerican case, the name was taken from a supernatural being of power and strength in the mythologies of various indigenous North American cultures of the Pacific northwest, the Southwestern and Atlantic coast of the United States, the Great Lakes, and the Great Plains. The Algonquian thunderbird controlled the upper world, while the
ReplyDeleteunderwater panther or Great Horned Serpent underworld was in charge of underworld. To the Menominee of northern Wisconsin, the thunderbirds dwelt on a mountain that floated in the western sky and controlled the rain and hail; they kept the great horned snakes (the Misikinubik) from overrunning the earth and devouring mankind. The Ojibway portrayed them as being created by Nanabozho specifically to battle the underwater spirits, but they also punish humans who broke moral rules.
A good poem. Like the vivid imagery and play of words.
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