Basic Maneuvers

by Clemens Starck

I was twelve. The war was over.

cutting short my dreams of glory

as a fighter pilot.

No longer could I hope

someday to sit in the cockpit of a P-38, alone

out over the Pacific,

looking for Japs to tangle with.

So I decided to become

a crop duster.

I sent away to the institute in El Paso

for the free literature,

and for months I would practice basic maneuvers.

mentally—

                    zooming in

at low altitude

in my Stearman biplane, skimming the fields, leaving behind

huge clouds of DDT.

then pulling up steeply, clearing by inches

the tops of the trees . . .

Later on I discovered Bashō and Issa, wonderful poems

by Takagi Kyozo—and the shakuhachi flute!

Also I read Silent Spring.

So it’s probably just as well

my plans didn’t work out.

From China Basin, Ashland, Oregon: Story Line Press, 2002, page 49.