DREAMS OF FLIGHT

The final master-stroke at last impos'd / And now, the neat machine compleatly clos'd;
Fitting his pinions on, a flight he tries, / And hung self-ballanc'd in the beaten skies.
--Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book VIII, The Story of Daedalus and Icarus, translated into
English by John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, William Congreve, et al.

The hand that captured Mona Lisa's smile,
The visionary mountain scene, the light,
The shade, the garment's look of current style...
Sketches a new machine for human flight.
The wind is strong at Kitty Hawk today.
Wilbur is steadying the wing. My heart
Is racing down the track. I'm underway!
"The time! The time!" "Twelve seconds." "It's a start."
The shuttle launch has stopped. T-minus ten.
The problem's fixed. The countdown starts...three, two...
The roaring blast, the roll routine, the men
At Mission Control cheer, the shuttle's view...
The Earth, so vast, the clouds, the sea, the land,
Created by the Master Sculptor's hand.