[Newspoetry] from the air

[Joe Futrelle]

Lifting off from Washington National
(I will not call it by its new name)

I saw the Pentagon for the first time
since 911.

The sun had just set.  The 757's wings
glowed sunset orange;

a dim haze blanketed D.C.
Floodlights and white trailers loitered
in the gutted slot.

Scaffolding patches the open ends of the structure
like a giant band-aid.

I could not escape the thought:
"They're renovating it ...
it's under construction ...
the remodeling will look great ..."

What happened is forever inaccessible to the imagination,
-- there's no video --
but now I've seen the gash with my own eyes.

Coming into Chicago I followed the 757's pitch, roll, yaw, intensely,
recalling how I used to crash Cessna after Cessna into the Sears tower
in Microsoft Flight Simulator,

never leaving a dent.

--
Joe Futrelle
editor-against-chief
Newspoetry dawt com