THE AIRMAN AND THE INFANTRYMAN

He slipped the surly bonds of earth,
I crawled in its muck and mire.
He danced on laughter-silvered wings,
I trembled in muddy field many an hour.

He climbed sunward and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds and did a hundred things
not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung -
I dug downward in the rock strewn sod of mother earth
and did a hundred things I had not dreamed of -
shivered and sweated as I earthward clung -

He hovered there in sunlit silence
and chased the shouting wind along,
and flung his eager craft through footless halls of air.
I cowered under a thunderous barrage,
mind torn by roar of artillery fire,
and pressed my naked body even closer to the ground.

Up, up, the long delirious burning blue
he topped wind-swept heights with easy grace
where never Lark, or even Eagle flew -
Down, down, digging in the dusty ground,
I cowered behind barren rocks
and hid my face where mold and fungus grew.

And while with silent lifting mind,
he trod the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
put out his hand and touched the face of God,
I with silent tortured mind,
hid in the lowest recesses of trembling earth,
buried my face in my hands and prayed desperately to God.

©Copyright September 10, 2002 by Charles F. "Butch" Lesley

Author’s Note: The Airman part of this poem is borrowed from High Flight
written by Pilot Officer John G. Magee