When The Jet Sprang Into The Sky

When The Jet Sprang Into The Sky :

Can you imagine what your city would look like if you saw it from ten thousand feet above the ground? Neatly planned and perfect in proportion like a geometric design, it would strike you as something very different from what it actually is while you are in the thick of it. Here is a poet's description of just such a view of the city and some questions that come to his mind.

When the jet sprang into the sky,

it was clear why the city

had developed the way it had,

seeing it scaled six inches to the mile.

There seemed an inevitability

about what on ground had looked haphazard,

unplanned and without style

When the jet sprang into the sky.

When the jet reached ten thousand feet,

it was clear why the country

had cities where the rivers ran

and why the valleys were populated.

The logic of geography —

that land and water attracted man —

was clearly delineated

When the jet reached ten thousand feet.

When the jet rose six miles high,

it was clear the earth was round

and that it had more sea than land.

But it was difficult to understand

that the men on the earth found

causes to hate each other, to build

walls across cities and to kill.

From that height, it was not clear why.




When The Jet Sprang Into The Sky :

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