Counting Airplanes

Counting Airplanes
Christopher Bogart

When I was a kid in Queens,
We used to count airplanes.

Two stupid kids from the public housing projects,

Peter and I,
Looked to the sky,
Day after summer day,
And counted the passing planes.

Eyes to the skies,
Brows knitted,
Faces squinted,
Pencils in hand,
We counted planes –
To protect our country
From aerial attack.

The Russians wouldn’t dare –

Two boys faced the air
To protecting the skies
Over Flushing, Queens.

There we sat,
Peter and I,
Day after summer day –
Me with my sharp vision,
Peter with his pad and pencil,
Protecting America
For Democracy.

Published in Voices Rising from the Grove