the lazy biplane leans back
amidst the pugsome sweet odours
of a wheel-rutted field exhaling
in the early morning light

mounted by a girl in her flying suit
who drops into the second dent

fuel on
mixture rich
mags on both
check check check

brmp brmp
brmp brmp
BGGRRRRRRR
the whole machine
shakes and rocks throaty
as it comes to caffeinated life
her leather helmet strapped tight
she waves the chocks away

the stearman weaves across the field
where it sits sleepy as a fat moth and ponders
before drawing a long line of vapour across the paper and
wriggling into air stabbed with skin-tingling sharps of sunlight

her brow dotted with perspiration
she betrays a slippery grip on those dangerous
outer edges of cosmic creativity

deep breath, full power, tight grip, stick forward
sliding down the neck of a plunging horse
fabric juddering, wires screaming
teeth gritted, neck cords sinewed
farmland zooming up close
before hauling back
heavy in her seat
eyeballs glazed

stanza one written in puffy white
signwriting against the stationery blue

 
she looks up into the void
cocooned like an astronaut
with boots rolling over until
she hangs like a fetus suspended
engine coughing in its own exhaust
slowly peeling backwards like a high diver
sky flips to earth and the church steeple looms
stanza two now written before God

the judges below frown
as they mark their sheets

now for the
stupendous
snap-spin finale
plane tumbling like
a yellow autumn leaf
through the rancid air

the pilot embalmed in an icy sweat
as the madly shaking altimeter of her mind unwinds
her ribbon of life striving for endless perfection
seeking praise from a dead father

the black earth whirls its darkly seductive gyre
her hand hovers to turn back the dial
but betrayed by man and bush baby
with the deep soil now blurring
and numbed by the final fatal
profundity of self doubt
she buries herself in it

the judges lift their heads
and their pencils snap