DD 5/31/04 MICHAEL LEUNIG POEM

a poem by one of my favories, Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig...
THE LAST FLIGHT OF THE LONELY PASSION
The last flight of the "Lonely Passion,"
Our one remaining plane,
Took off late on Sunday night
And was never seen again.
It is said, amongst a host of other things,
That there were various malfunctions in the wings.
In fact a very large collection...
The fact is, the wings were MADE of imperfection.
And yet, such beautiful, functional things:
Imperfections carefully woven into wings;
Failings great, but mostly medium to small,
But something strangely uplifting in every fall.
You see, it didn't fly
By means of a propeller or a rocket burning;
It rose into the heavens
By the pure boldness of its yearning!
And now our "Lonely Passion" is unaccounted for.
Maybe it strayed into the airspace or the headspace of
a wicked unforgiving war.
Or maybe, in the night of all this fearful, sad and
bitter thinking,
Its little navigation light is somewhere blinking...