Birthplace of Aviation
Hannah Stephenson
The place where the plane
first walked on air, or the place
where the makers of the plane
were born. Or the place
where the steel in the plane
was forged, or the college
where the best mathematician
of the class of 1854 smiled
at a man in the hallway,
welding his heart to
walls of his chest when
he saw her, and when
they married and had
children, they named
the second one Wilbur
and the sixth Orville.
How about the French
designer of the model
airplane which flew
because of a twisted
rubber band, the one
who killed himself
when he was 30, but
lived long enough to
inspire toy helicopters
to be crafted and wound
with rubber bands, one
of which was given
to the little Wright
boys as they sprawled
in the grass after
dinner in the August
dusk, looking up.