Apogee
Thomas Piekarski
In the ivory hours
of teentsy-weentsy mornings
they'd break the sound barrier
with huge ka-booms,
those jets taking off from Mather
and McClellan Air Force bases.
The vapor trails they left
in the brilliant blue sky
extended even beyond
heaven's horizon.
It was the apogee
of Cold War reconnaissance
hysteria that gripped
both sides as they amassed
monstrous nuclear arsenals
in a square world.
About the Author
Thomas Piekarski is a former editor of the California State Poetry Quarterly. His theater and restaurant reviews have been published in various newspapers, with poetry and interviews appearing in numerous national journals, among them Portland Review, Main Street Rag, Kestrel, Scarlet Literary Magazine, Cream City Review, Nimrod, Penny Ante Feud, New Plains Review, Poetry Quarterly, The Muse-an International Journal of Poetry, and Clockhouse Review. He has published a travel guide, Best Choices In Northern California, and Time Lines, a book of poems. He lives in Marina, California.