FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLE BEE
Hardly more than boys none older than twenty
the crew fresh from training schools
on a first cross-country flight
two fledgling pilots in a new erratic machine
the navigator perfecting airborne math.
Six maturing kids refreshing themselves
after night flying hundreds of miles before breakfast
now well fed and ready for another hop in daylight.
New baby photo passed around by proud pilot
getting our congratulations as crew and he wave
entering an unproved B-26 bomber in 1943
learning to operate smallest and fastest of its kind
with short wings and two super-powered engines
designed for tree-top bombing of high-risk targets
an airplane said to be comparable to the bumble bee
not suppose to fly but fly it did against all odds
and on this day power and design worked well
but only for crucial seconds before both engines fail
plunging men and plane into a flaming inferno
at runway's end within sight of crew's newly made friends.
Early morning's unexplained tragedy extends
to air controller's losing self control after directing takeoff
screaming hysterically asking what he had done wrong
its repetition ends with a sharp slap from a friend
bringing the sudden stinging hot tears of relief
being fought back by each sickened disciplined witness.