I don’t know who made the first ever paper airplane and history seems divided but like everything they have a history. Leonardo Da Vinci used parchment paper to create models of his ornithopter. The Wright brothers used paper airplanes while conceptualizing their first attempts at a carrier plane. During World War II the popularity of paper planes increased due to rationing, despite the rations, paper was widely available. My origami skills have been a constant letdown, I’m no paper craftsman, I can barely fold paper into an envelope evenly let alone build something capable of taking flight. I’m better at writing on paper than folding it. Maybe it’s a lost art or perhaps it’s an environmentalist’s nightmare. Either way the following is a poem I wrote called Paper Airplane. Maybe it will fly or perhaps it will circle around itself and land upside down, I don’t mind, I had fun thinking up the words to create it.

PAPER AIRPLANE

Been tossing and turning in my bed

Thinking of every word I left unsaid

When you decided to say goodbye

I was too busy trying to figure out why

But deep down really deep down

I knew smiles had evaporated to be replaced by frowns

Life was resting heavy on my shoulders

The weight of lies were making us older

Too old before our time

Whiskey soaked and drenched in wine

I lifted her up but started to hold her back

From all of the hope I began to lack

Sometimes bridges are supposed to burn

I’m not selfish enough to ask her to return

Only want her to know I’m a different man

Want her to know how sorry I am

So before my thoughts began to taper

I wrote a few words onto a piece of paper

Darling I didn’t mean to spread my sadness

You’re not to blame for any of my madness

I truly hope you’ve found peace in your heart

Found some happiness inside your fresh start

May you find true love in your latest quest

My dear I can only wish you the very best

Then I put my pen away

Waited for the night to turn into day

Knowing I’d never see her again

Folded my words into a paper airplane

Every word I wanted to say

Just wanted to see them fly away

Stood in a field covered in mud

I’d never made a paper airplane so good

Without any further ado

Out of my hands it flew

And oh boy did it fly

Damn near pierced the sky

My mouth was open and I couldn’t talk

When it was plucked out of the air in the talons of a hawk

Away the magnificent bird glided

With all the words I’d confided

Wondered where they’d eventually land

Would whoever read them understand?

But life can be funny and life can be strange

Life can be chaotic and life can be arranged

She was drinking coffee watching flowers grow

Listening to the rooster’s crow

Grateful for all she had and how much she’d grown

To forge a life she could call her own

She lit an American Spirit cigarette

Hoping her new happiness could let her forget her regrets

She looked up into the sky

Wondering if her new life was a lie

Or if she’d finally found true love

When she noticed a hawk hovering above

Out of its grasp my words began to float

And she read every word I wrote

Her eyes filled with tears

She felt like it was what she needed to hear

And she finally felt free

She just didn’t know those words were written by me

I made a paper airplane

But I never wanted to sign my name