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Helicopter: A Demilitarization

By M. F. Simone Roberts

Image of the sketch for a helicopter, or Begin with da Vinci’s hybrid
of spring and top, of wood and iron,
and completely non-aerodynamic,
then crystallize the blue of the lagoon
at San Sebastiàn, crush it to powder for infusion
into honey so to attract
all the dragonflies of the world,
that this soon-to-fly chimera
may be the cosmic center of insect erotica,
yes, that the dragonflies may mate in flight
more quick and fleet than any Blackhawk,
more in tune with the agile subtleties
of oxy-nitrogen physics;

then, on armatures extending to 9 and 3 o’clock,
provide small flower gardens for the bees,
that their pollination may saturate the world
in golden dusty fecundity,
so the passing of this contraption would please
the noses of humans, bears, and some dogs;

add to that, mounted on runners,
a stereo fit for PSYOPs against a megacity—
all subwoofers the size of serving platters,
and tweeters big like Frisbees—
playing Coltrane and Beethoven and the Gypsy Kings
at top volume that the world’s tribes may hear
the thrumming heart of joy
from several thousand feet in the air
as clearly as if
they were in the symphony hall
swooning with the flow of these geniuses
of faith in the human soul
sweating for us;

then wrap the bones of the machine
in the tents of the world’s refugees
because they found refuge—
that we may remember—
and paint the rotted fabric
with scenes of
perfected human bliss:
in prayer,
in feast,
in dance,
in love with our lives,
curled into our parents arms—
that we may forget—
as we
celebrate
our frail
and dynamic
capacities
for faith
in each other
far beyond
any faith
in any god.
Added: Wednesday, May 9, 2018  /  Used with permission.
M. F. Simone Roberts

M.F. Simone Roberts is Split This Rock's former Managing Editor of The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database, Poem of the Week Series, and Blog This Rock. She is an independent scholar of poetics and feminist phenomenology, poet, editor, and activist. Her poems appear in Revue/Post, Poets Reading the News, Literary Nest, The Quarry, and other journals soon. She is co-editor of the anthology Iris Murdoch and the Moral Imagination: Essays and author of the critical monograph A Poetics of Being-Two: Irigaray's Ethics and Post-Symbolist Poetics. Simone lives with her consort, Adam Silverman, in Virginia on land once home to the Piscataway people and later farmed by African people enslaved by President George Washington. Simone tweets and ‘grams sporadically at @pomored.

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