This is the last addition to the early poetry section of my web site and isn't really a poem at all. It is a short allegorical vignette of an incident that occurred when I was in college. It is both amusing and embarrassing to read this again after all of these years. Still, it was a start.....

Silver Death

The foliage on the hillside was greener than might be seen on most summer days. The hear waves rose from the shimmering lake like blades of straw waving in the wind, distorting the atmosphere into a magic bubbling brook as the sun cast down its rays like golden spears into the tranquil scene.

High above, a great silver bird, the sun catching its startling plumage, magnificently winged its way through the skies. Suddenly, as though time had stood still for a brief moment, it fluttered and began falling toward the rich green earth. It tried desperately to save itself from its inevitable fate, but the ground reached up and snatched it from the blue skies and, in an instant, it lay there gasping its last dying breath.

As this magnificent specimen lay there in a tangled heap, its silver and blue body began changing to a horrible crimson and black mass which adulterated its fresh, green bed. Its wings were the first to change, followed almost simultaneously, buy the same change over its beautiful, but twisted, body. Finally its stately tail was enwreathed by the ghastly hues.

The changes progressed slowly at first, but then increase so suddenly that the once magnificent ornathon was decayed beyond recognition in another instant. No life exited in this speedy messenger. Not even the parasites, which had so voraciously attached themselves to its glorious body, escaped extinction.

The sun sank into the nearby lake extinguishing its flame for another day. The moon rose and beamed down upon the fallen bird--showing the rippling of its putrefied skin by the night winds as they raced by.

One feather lay unscathed upon the moonlit ground and reflected back its illuminating source it strange blue markings---JET-FLITE AIRLINES--4799.

James I. Morgan
Published in Convolutions
Peoria, Illinois: Bradley University
Spring/Summer Issu
No Date, but most likely 1960.