Donal Mahoney- A Poem

Pilots of the Dawn

We were pilots of the dawn, launched

from our mother's womb screaming,

flying higher than we ever dreamt.

We sought to navigate the sky 

and make the sun our prisoner.

It was just a sinkhole in the path

of everything we had to do. 

Now, many decades later,  

we've done everything we can

and glide like gulls, aimlessly.

One by one, our planes plummet

back to Earth without a warning  

while the rest of us are slowly

running out of fuel.

There's nothing we can do.

We flew for years to get things done  

and now it's time to tally up our score

but that's not part of our assignment.