Fortress

She thundered in
Five hundred feet
Above the deck
A bright white star
Blazing on her port wing
Right out of 1944.

I stood on the edge
Of a field of wheat
Feet planted in the earth
But my soul was executing
A shallow right wheel
Under a wide powder blue sky.

My chest vibrated
With the palpitations
Of four Pratt and Whitney engines
Pulsing all the way
To my loins
And I stood transfixed
By seventy years
Of passion and history.

Come again, hero.
Fly again, warrior.

As she receded into the distance
I became aware
I had been standing tall
My right arm
In a stiff salute
To an old Fortress
Pristine in form
Mighty in honor
And disappearing forever
From skies
That now feel empty.