by Zulfikar Ghose
when the jet sprang into the sky
it was clear why the city
had developed the way it had,
seeing it scaled six inches to the mile.
there seemed an inevitability
about what ground had looked haphazard,
unplanned and without style
when the jet sprang into the sky.
when the jet reached ten thousand feet,
it was clear why the country
had cities where rivers ran
and why the valleys were populated.
the logic of geography-
that land and water attracted man
was clearly delineated
when the jet reached ten thousand feet
when the jet rose six miles high,
it was clear that the earth was round
and that it had more sea than land.
but it was difficult to understand
that the men on earth found
causes to hate each other, to build
walls across cities and to kill
from that height, it was not clear why.
when the jet sprang into the sky
it was clear why the city
had developed the way it had,
seeing it scaled six inches to the mile.
there seemed an inevitability
about what ground had looked haphazard,
unplanned and without style
when the jet sprang into the sky.
when the jet reached ten thousand feet,
it was clear why the country
had cities where rivers ran
and why the valleys were populated.
the logic of geography-
that land and water attracted man
was clearly delineated
when the jet reached ten thousand feet
when the jet rose six miles high,
it was clear that the earth was round
and that it had more sea than land.
but it was difficult to understand
that the men on earth found
causes to hate each other, to build
walls across cities and to kill
from that height, it was not clear why.
