FROM BALLOONS TO
'CHOPPERS'
If
air balloons are natural,
Then
the earliest planes, open to the air,
Were
moderately antinatural,
With double wings on either side.
Then
came the single-wing closed cockpit planes,
Suggestive
of a radical antinaturalism,
Which
were followed, in due course, by
The
more radically anti-natural jet planes,
With
shorter wings set aslant the body,
As if drawn back in horror of relativity.
But
even they seem moderate
Compared
with the extreme antinaturalism
Of
those jets, often smaller, whose wings
Are
so close to the body as to appear a part of it,
An
extension of the body rather than an independent wing,
Near
absolute in expansive tail, more fish than bird.
Similar
to them but capable of vertical take-off
Are
the anti-supernatural jets, with fold-up wings,
And
reminiscent of balloons but powered by engine ...
Are
the supernatural 'choppers',
Their
blades revolving atop the body
Or,
rather, head - a vertical take-off
Confirming a transcendental essence.