The Right Stuff–the book by Tom Wolfe and the movie–are favorites of mine. In the movie, I can never decide if I’m fonder of Chuck Yeager (as played by Sam Shepard) or John Glenn (as played by Ed Harris). But I do know that among my favorite scenes is the one where test pilot Yeager has to bail out of his jet before it crashes. When his best friend Jack and another man come upon the wreckage, they think they see a figure walking toward them. The other guy squints and asks, “Is that a man?” Jack recognizes Yeager and answers, “You damn right it is.”
I was thinking about all that when I wrote today’s poem.
