by Jim Ross
Paper Tigers
for Amelia Earhart
—launched from a ramp on the toolshed roof,
cutting through air in a wood box
then a hard landing, a cut lip, and stares;
but also: learning life meant climbing back up
into that free-fall space,
defying gravity’s pull—
chasing white paper tigers
across the broad blue belting the world.
carrying legions of women with me on wings.
Being encased in this metal skirt feels more free
than twirling in some frilly debutante dress.
I always wore frisson best.
How can I fear crashing after staring down
a plane careening towards me, a train-wreck
alcoholic father, and the Spanish flu?
As they passed me by, each of them whispered
“Fly, girl, fly, better engineer than ingénue.”
Having kissed 14,000 feet of attitude,
I know it’s not the fall but the precipice
before it that terrifies. The rest
is mere tenacity.
M. Benjamin Thorne is an Associate Professor of Modern European History at Wingate University. Possessed of a lifelong love of history and poetry, he is interested in exploring the synergy between the two. His poems appear or are forthcoming in Autumn Sky Poetry, Drunk Monkeys, Sky Island Journal, Wilderness House Literary Review, Cathexis Northwest, and The Westchester Review. He lives and sometimes sleeps in Charlotte, NC.
Jim Ross jumped into creative pursuits in 2015 after rewarding research career. With graduate degree from Howard University, in nine years he’s published nonfiction, fiction, poetry, photography, hybrid, interviews, and plays in 200 journals on five continents. Best-of-the-Net nominated, his photo publications include Burningword, Camas, Feral, Phoebe, Stonecoast. Photo-essays include Kestrel, Pilgrimage, Sweet, Typehouse. Jim’s family splits time between city and mountains. https://www.instagram.com/abracadabra5476.