The Daily Poem

THE AMPHIBIOUS FLIER

I see a ship come sailing in,

A sculptured frigate long and thin;

Her body’s carved like a violin,

   Her timbers tall

With windmill blades that spin

   The blurring squall.

The gale blows hard and strong,

But lightly like a nursery song

The shining schooner flies along

   Approaching land

As if terrestrially her wheels belong

   Upon the sand.

And as I watch, she leaves the seas

To skim the beach and onward flees

Before the ever-chasing breeze;

   A chariot now

Seduced along by unseen steeds

   Before her prow.

Across the countryside she goes,

Her motion serpentinely flows

As deep within her neck their glows

   A brightening flame

Of blooming energetic rose

   That none can tame.

And as I watch, her sterns ignite,

Her double sterns now rocket bright,

Careening to a stellar height

   In one swift arc;

And left behind her streaking flight—

   A question mark.

~ D. Edgar Lamp (Burns Stanza)