A Poem for Antoine De Saint –Exupery

I wish I could have kept you companyon those flights over the sand

We could have counted starsand read each other the love lettersit was our duty to deliver.

In the heat of the day, we’d share our single ration of waterand speak sweetly to each other

From dry throats and cracking lipsI’d lean in close and say“tell me a story about this life.”

“There was a boy age near eightwith hair like bright colored wheat

He was what was right and what was realhow we were before we began to feelthe weight we had to forget, the fear, defeat.”

And you would continue until my eyes were closedand the sky had turned to plum

The dark would hum and hold me softwhen my wakened mind would have worriedour tiny plane might twirl.

Maybe had I been there asleepin front of the co-pilot controls

I could have saved you from disaster—the one that brought you to the dustand shattered the dials and sparked spat oil.

Maybe the pieces of your plane would haverejoined in backwards burst

Sealed at the cracking seamsand bounded from the groundtailing towards the wind and clouds.