[
  {
    "title": "The Lost Pilot",
    "author": "Edward Taylor",
    "lines": [
      "for my father, 1922-1944",
      "",
      "Your face did not rot",
      "like the others--the co-pilot,",
      "for example, I saw him",
      "",
      "yesterday. His face is corn-",
      "mush: his wife and daughter,",
      "the poor ignorant people, stare",
      "",
      "as if he will compose soon.",
      "He was more wronged than Job.",
      "But your face did not rot",
      "",
      "like the others--it grew dark,",
      "and hard like ebony;",
      "the features progressed in their",
      "",
      "distinction. If I could cajole",
      "you to come back for an evening,",
      "down from your compulsive",
      "",
      "orbiting, I would touch you,",
      "read your face as Dallas,",
      "your hoodlum gunner, now,",
      "",
      "with the blistered eyes, reads",
      "his braille editions. I would",
      "touch your face as a disinterested",
      "",
      "scholar touches an original page.",
      "However frightening, I would",
      "discover you, and I would not",
      "",
      "turn you in; I would not make",
      "you face your wife, or Dallas,",
      "or the co-pilot, Jim. You",
      "",
      "could return to your crazy",
      "orbiting, and I would not try",
      "to fully understand what",
      "",
      "it means to you. All I know",
      "is this: when I see you,",
      "as I have seen you at least",
      "",
      "once every year of my life,",
      "spin across the wilds of the sky",
      "like a tiny, African god,",
      "",
      "I feel dead. I feel as if I were",
      "the residue of a stranger's life,",
      "that I should pursue you.",
      "",
      "My head cocked toward the sky,",
      "I cannot get off the ground,",
      "and, you, passing over again,",
      "",
      "fast, perfect, and unwilling",
      "to tell me that you are doing",
      "well, or that it was mistake",
      "",
      "that placed you in that world,",
      "and me in this; or that misfortune",
      "placed these worlds in us."
    ],
    "linecount": "49"
  }
]