Flight Plan

Flight Plan
by Vivian Gilbert Zabel

Born under a flight pattern years ago caused
My love of airplanes, lasting too long a time.
Once I could recognize those flying o'erhead
By the sound reverberating through the air.
Studying the shape and size, the nose and tail
Allowed me to know each Air Force plane by name.
I even dreamed of flying high myself, yes.
What a wonderful dream when I was a child.
Then I took my first flight high above the clouds,
Looking below to patchwork fields, tiny ants,
Ants that were houses, buildings, machines, and more.
I loved the feeling of being in the air
Until the clouds turned dark and the storm appeared.
My lunch didn’t settle in my stomach well:
In fact it decided it had to escape.
My plan for flight, soaring for life, disappeared.

Note: This form is called a hexasyllabic, meaning it has eleven syllables in each line.