Amelia Redux 1937-2012:

A Pilot's Log

 India

Bharat: Gondwana breakage,
Pieced from Archean stone,
Mid-June monsoons
Accompany my West Bengali glide,
Tropic of Cancer zip-line
Speeds this aerialist
From lush mountains to
Gangetic plains,
Rain strafes--air-avenue--easement 
I wrest tractor's nose down,
Cyclonic drafts thrust us 1000 feet
Higher,
Windshield's redacted
By dousings of watery-oil
Weather stripping 'round hatch
Keeps cabin dry
Luckily dash houses intuitive dials:
Sensitive altimeter,
Artificial horizon,
Inclinometer,
Needle & Ball,
Autopilot,
Turn & Bank,
Volt-Ammeter,
8-day clock
In cubbyholes are charts,
Smelling salts,
Thermos of tomato juice,
Horlicks malted tablets,
Cheese sandwich,
Oranges, hard-boiled egg
My cockpit's four-feet six inches wide,
Four-feet six inches fore-and-aft,
As cozy as a kitchen

Bangkok, Thailand

Martaban Gulf, tide-wise,
Double-shifts,
I behold its full-phase
Amplitude:
Bay bilges with syrup-hued silt
Akin to glazes
On giant Salween jars
Mangrove brake and sea grass lea
Mane Andaman shores,
Kingsford-Smith's daemon haunts
Burma Sea eddies
His sapphire plane,
--Lady Southern Cross--
Lost 1935 en route
From Allahabad to Singapore,
Dwells granular till below:
Its blue bulkhead corkscrewed to
Continental rise
Electra points 8,000 feet above
Toothy north-south peaks:
Dawna crags, hindmost slips
Of Himalayan snowy 'bodes,
Hackle Malay Peninsula
We top stone occlusion,
Descend past grasslands to
Blanketing hardwood forests
I adjust flaps, rudders,
Throttle down to get view
Of elephant clan in glade,
Calves, mamas, scrounge 
Wild ginger, longan seeds,
Tug trees, rout roots
Antenna loosens to eavesdrop:
Lumbrous bodies,
--Skulls resonant as caverns--
Form cadences
Matriarch signals family,
Points spine in new direction,
Shakes ashen ears,
Sub-sonic pachyderm rumbles rise
Up my wire,
Resemble stomach growls, booms,
Drum beats, pangs,
Chants transcribe hills, flats,
Water distance,
Bow of worn-down trail
In still air, behemoth code quavers miles
We fly inland toward Bangkok,
Fresh road incisions
Trespass virgin forest
Jobbing elephants haul russet logs
Down graded slopes
Buddhist Monasteries abide
Timberlines,
Orange monk robes wrap
'Round teak-torsos,
Ordain trees,
Make each one holy
Loggers bypass groves
So sanctified 

Malaysia

Electra reflects mauve meniscus
Of Siam Sea,
Snips Kra Isthmus,
Mountain rungs lapse to highlands of tea:
Sinuous paths delineate crops,
Tat lush fodder for brews
Wau bulan kites fly figure-eights above
Plantation tracts,
Scatter crows, exile wraiths, dog-fight,
--Sunlight pings off buoyant paper wings--
I cast antenna to sooth-sayer's province,
Droning ditties from humming kite-bows
Fill my ears,
Airyplane accelerates
Past its leashed kin,
Dips south
We violate primeval airspace,
Great beings--Tualang trees--
Pierce rainforest canopy
Giant honeycombs dangle
From tensile branches
Bees shower groundlings--figs, mosses, rattan--
With luteous pollen
Electra overtakes Kuala Lumpur
Corporate-oil towers shimmer
Like cut glass,
Dwarf humble shop-houses
Minding city-centre

Laura Stickney


photo from Fans in a Flashbulb