Flying at an altitude of at least three feet
Lycra-streamlined, tight-topped friends go cruising on Hove Beach.
Passers-by can’t help but admire —
not just those outfits, that athletic attire —
but the graceful poise of humans in flight:
“That shouldn’t be possible… something’s not right!”
For everyone knows we do not have wings;
we’ve only got arms and legs — not feathered things.
But with a hand to a hand and a foot to a hip,
these things can be done. With a faint, steady grip
the flyer points higher, like Icarus to the sun,
and the baser lies back — this is ever such fun!
But with all of these angles, so much to remember —
an unbalanced take-off means a knee in his member.
It’s no time to laugh now, one of us mutters,
Keep a straight face. To the stars, not the gutters!
Just playing around with these Acrobats’ poses,
those sequences and flows… which are more for the posers.
Catherine Wheel, Ninja Star, or there’s Plank for beginners —
this sport’s open-ended: no losers, no winners
except for the couple who, too, stop to look
at the foot-to-hand press: Cor… the effort that took!
It’s all about testing, the trial and error—
To create aviation without any terror.
The lesson we learn with each new skill we’re facing?
Perfection’s a rainbow that’s never worth chasing.
Frederik Cole is a trainee psychotherapeutic counsellor living here in Brighton & Hove. Now 43, he only felt inspired to start to perform publicly and to start to share his poems with the world last year.
Image Credit: the author
