A single wing glides then slices 
through Twilight Zone clouds
its steady, unexceptional carriage
gains momentum, builds grandeur
as it soars through the troposphere
resisting an alluring cirrus vortex
daring navigators & pilots to dive
into uncharted black holes, explore 
murky depths & endure an ice cycle  

baptism from rudder to fuselage, 
cockpit to tail, turbines to stabilizers.  

My best poems like vapor trails
exist in a moment, lag behind me
then dissipate amid smoky condensation
that defy longevity’s imprints
as evasive as oddly familiar stranger’s 
faces encountered in a dreamscape. Quixotic
convictions dissemble, suggest creativity
lingers in beads of sweat. Inspired. Patient. 
Words wait to take flight like sliver birds

while overcast skies invite fresh verse to rest 
atop rainbow arcs like temporal contrails.
                        

Caterpillars curled inside their chrysalis
pupae evolved with colored appendages
expressing attitude, longing for flight
dusting flowers with pollen, lapping
nectar as we children chased & caught them
in nets crafted from Mother’s old nylons, 
dropping butterflies into mayonnaise jars
where mounds of cotton balls doused
with chloroform waited to anesthetize beauty 
& preserve trophies prior to pinning lifeless 
polychromatic forms to refrigerator boxes cut
into rectangles like two-dimensional tack boards
displaying & holding specimens that revived
at midnight like a swallowtail-monarch carousel 
when sedation elapsed, spiracles opened, 
thoraxes stirred & revitalized wings fluttered.