First they were her bones,
then they weren’t,
and now they are again.
Found in the Pacific
on the island of Nikumaroro
in 1940,
said to be the remains of a man
instead of the first woman to fly
across the Atlantic in ‘32,
gone in ‘37 while attempting to circle the globe,
a long-legged female in trousers
smiling broadly beside her plane
famously in love with the clouds
and the freedom of the air,
the mystique of her still soaring.
Did she go down in flames,
survive as a castaway,
live the life of a captive,
even plot her exit to become
her navigator’s lover?
The bones were lost in ‘41—
only the forensics remained
to be revisited
with new technology,
a seamstress measuring the inseam
of her pants
retrieved from a museum,
concluding they fit her bones
while the ghost of Amelia hovered
whispering flight.
