On thing you can admire about human beings is their
insatiable quest to be like birds
To break free of gravity that for many centuries looked to
myth as flight seemed absurd
From the Greek mythology of Icarus and Daedalus who escaped
from a tower on bird feather wings
Freedom from the ground their glued together with bees’ wax
would bring
But Icarus not content to just glide away to freedom
Ignored his father’s warning of where not to fly and did
something dumb
Flew close to the Sun which melted the heat that held the
feathers
Falling then back to Earth as gravity pulled back on its
tether
To the biblical King Solomon who possessed a flying carpet
large enough to an army fly
To Aladdin whose flying carpet was added to The Arabian
Nights in the 18th Century to propel him across the sky
Finally with the advent of hot-air balloons, gliders and the
Wright Brothers the idea freedom from gravity became a fact
Improvements in aviation enabled mankind to fly faster,
higher, and longer even though wings they lacked
Now humans can ape a flying squirrel to glide through the
skies and the Aladdin myth has been turned into a fact
Frenchman Freddy Montigny has flown into the skies over from the Croix
des Têtes on a carpet with a parachute on his back
Unlike a hang glider it seems his flying carpet needs some
landing aid
When it comes time to end his flight to the tether of gravity evade
© 9/23/2024 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
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