Episode 20 READING POETRY - “Derigibles” by Derek Mahon #NaPodPoMo

DERIGIBLES
We who used to drift
     superbly in mid-air,
each a giant airship
     before ‘the last war’,
shrink to a soft buzz
     about financial centres
surprising visitors,
     hackers and bean counters
in cloud-flown highrises.
     Cloud-slow, we snoop for hours
on open-plan offices
     and cloudy cocktail bars.
Amnesia and mystique
     have cast into oblivion
fiery failures like
     Italia, R101,
the whole brief catalogue
     of mad catastrophes;
and showy Hindenburg
     of course, the last of these.
A temporary setback.
     Our time will come again
with helium in the sack
     instead of hydrogen
while slow idealists
     gaze at refrozen ice,
reflourishing rain forests,
     the oceans back in place;
at sand and stars, blue skies,
     clear water, scattered light
as in the early days
     of nearly silent flight.