Reflections On a Flyover For My Dad At Arlington

Above the clouds in many splendored hues of blue and white This view beheld by an honored and rarest few A nations treasure lies below in marble and in green Yet no dome or obelisk could ever be this hallowed Like a great bird it claws across the sky A meeting calls: a friend in need Its mighty engines crash through the silent morning sky Its shrieks but music to all who know and remember well The many come to take her place are fallen This Daedalus lives on to tell their tales and more Through younger eyes she gleamed in sun drenched silvers high above the clouds Now bathed in grays she lingers on to battles unimagined in her youth Lightened of the tools of war her peaceful mission now to do She’s come to pay her last respects And as she dipped and turned away A sweet release and something more A soul was taken from this world And carried to the arms of God © 2014 by Craig McAlister Flyover by B-52H serial 0060 "Iron Butterfly" at Arlington National Cemetery on January 7, 2008.