I saw Jesus in a cloudbank

I saw Jesus in a cloudbank
when I was seven years old.
Flying high above Canada,
his hands spread in a benediction
over the earth.

Did those brave souls on
flight 93 feel the same sense of peace
when they decided the better part
of valor lay in an isolated field in Pennsylvania,
offering their lives in a mad rush to the cockpit
so that other sacrificial lambs would survive?

Alessa E. Leming is a massage therapist in Spruce Pine. She also dabbles in karate, B&W photography and writing.