The Man in the Moon: Anthology of Poems by Sam Cullingworth - HTML preview

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Flying

 

My eyes are turned skyward,

Looking for Heaven's word.

Ok, a forecast will do,

I check for mud on my shoe.

No rain last night and

The day dawned bright.

 

Patiently, I para wait.

I get a phone call from my mate:

"It's on!" Shit, I'd better get gone!

Sure enough, I see the first sign of bliss.

Cumulus Humilis.

 

I tremble in trepidation and elation,

Going paragliding, the ultimate rush.

I hope I don't land in a bush.

Glider, harness, cockpit, rucksack, 32kg!

Better not break my back.

 

I'm off to Pendle Hill, what a thrill.

I feel almost sick at sight of "the nick".

As I walk to the top, called "the pimple",

Left, right, left. I keep it simple.

I'm here! Drop my gear.

 

I sit on my glider bag, my mate

Lights up a fag.

As the smoke drifts across the amazing view,

A fox appears from behind the rock.

It was quite a shock!

Is his name George? And he winked at me,

He knew.

 

Fingers fumble, legs are a jumble.

Adrenaline wreaks havoc inside my body,

But I stay focussed, can't afford to be shoddy.

Time for take off, reverse launch.

Easy without a paunch.

I turn, and run, legs go light,

The ground gives me up without a fight.

 

As I wriggle into my harness,

I almost giggle

At the sheer pleasure.

The view of the world is my leisure.

 

Flying across "the nick",

I feel like a witch on a broomstick.

Full of magical prowess, I enter a thermal,

And disappear upwards, success!

Transmogrified into a bird,

I fly into the luminiferous ether,

Look! No feathers!

 

The vista below is like a patchwork quilt ,

I head towards a large white pillow,

edged with gilt from the sun. "Hello!"

And I dive in headfirst into

the soft white wetness.

 

It's as if you teleported into another land,

with no up, down, forward or back,

you can only just see your hand!

Soon I pop out of the top, I just can't stop.

 

Looking down the side of a cloud,

The Teutonic spectre puts on his dream coat ,

His colours so loud, beautiful! I float

Past, and he vanishes into his pearly gates.

To my right, another awesome sight.

It has a glint, and as I squint

at the mysterious ufo, it gathers pace,

 

Quick! I put the speed bar on,

it feels connected to my heart, we speed along

towards the shimmering object.

As I draw near , parting the diaphanous

veil of cloud, I see a shiny heart

beating with joy. Underneath, a long tail

whips and cracks with thermic alacrity.

 

Across the shiny foil red letters leap.

" I love you."

The helium fidelity someone let go

has connected with me at 12,000 feet.

Love is forever.