DALMATIAN AVIATION

It was a gloomy fire station,
The news that day was cruel,
When we discovered that our Dalmatian
Had turned up missing from Best Friend’s Obedience School.

The phone rang, and Chief Dan got it,
And, oh, that look upon his face,
For Gus had just been spotted …
At Lubbock Army Air Force Base!


We’d enrolled him in some classes
To learn to sit and stay and shake.
But when we forgot to pack his glasses,
He wound up flight school by mistake.

At once we left our station,
And off to Texas took a trip,
Where we found that young Dalmatian
As he taxied to the strip.


He revved both engines up to power,
And never bothered looking down.
Ignoring signals from the tower,
He left the base and flew to town.

He carpet-bombed* the mailman
As he made his rounds on Cactus Crest.
Then on a cat he trained his tail guns**
’Til he was down to two lives left.


And then he had a vision:
“Mission Liberate the Dog POWnd.”
He parked his plane behind the prison,
And crept across the compound.

He stormed the stalag guards,
Then he neutralized*** the vets,
And headed back into the clouds,
His bomb bay packed with pets.


He returned to base in victory,
But flying on fumes, and fading out fast.
He aimed for Runway 20,
As famished his fuel gauges frantically flashed.

His stick began to shake,
And his starboard engine stalled.
Then as he cleared Ojibwa Lake,
He began his final fall.


Then a thousand cracks of thunder,
And a bright and blinding flash,
As he redefined the Richter,
When in the ammo dump he crashed.

We ran out to the wreckage
Beneath the cloud of billowing black,
Where some spots we soon detected
Through a veil of dust and ash.


And he emerged uninjured
From the sprockets, springs, and screws,
And the bolts and hinges,
And some circuits scorched and fused.

And a trail of twisted tail fins,
And the flattened frame and flaps,
And some bent up blades and ailerons,
And a halo once a hatch.


Then came the base commander,
The pile of plane parts to peruse,
And it defied all understanding,
As he boldly broke the news:

In his forty years of flying,
He’d seen a lot of things,
But then, a silver lining ...
Gus had earned his wings!


I woke up from my dream to learn
That naughty dog was me,
And though it should be His wrath I’ve earned,
He forgives my sins and sets me free.

I’ll never be a spotless angel,
I still get stuck in sin and evil.
But when in my heart I allow my Savior,
He helps me soar on wings like eagles.


David J Allen
January 9, 2005 / March 28, 2007


__*_drops rolls of carpet on the mailman
_**_shoots with water from squirt guns
***_bribes with candy bars


Isaiah 40:31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.


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