[Newspoetry] EB Whites prophetic words in 1948

[John]

A single flight of planes no bigger  than a wedge of geese can quickly end
this island fantasy, burn the towers....EB White - 1948

excerpt from "Here Is New York," an essay by E.B.White, written in 1948:

The subtlest change in New York is something people don't speak much about
but that is in everybody's mind. The city, for the first time in its long
history, is destructible. A single flight of planes no bigger  than a wedge
of geese can quickly end this island fantasy, burn the towers, crumble the
bridges, turn the underground passages into lethal chambers,cremate the
millions. The intimation of mortality is part of New York now: in the sound
of jets overhead, in the black headlines of the latest edition. All dwellers
in cities must live with the stubborn fact of annihilation; in New York the
fact is somewhat more concentrated because of the concentration of the city
itself, and because of all targets, New York has a certain clear priority.
In the mind of whatever perverted dreamer who might loose the lightning, New
York must hold a steady, irresistible charm.

(White was thinking more along the lines of a plane bringing nuclear
destruction - the year was 1948 and the horrors of nuclear destruction were
just beginning to embed itself in the American psyche - but the prophetic
nature of the words are still chilling.)