The Last Jetway
By L. D. Carr, 1996, All Rights Reserved (71142.3073@compuserve.com)

	A pilot's career is a blink of an eye,
	That spans all the years he spent in the sky.
	He remembers his first trip in a very strong way,
	It's probably because it was just yesterday.
	
	How can this be? All his memories are fine,
	But now are compressed to one moment in time.
	His last flight now, seems just like the first.
	Can it be, its both the best and the worst?
	
	A new life he'll savor, there's things left to do,
	The projects he’s started can all be renewed.
	There is golf to be played and places to go,
	But best of all, he can take it real slow.
	
	No more short layovers or dark-thirty flights,
	No more bad food in the dead of the night.
	Checklist can be sung by younger men now,
	But given the chance, he could still show them how.
	
	"That last landing was great, Cap", the FO had said,
	As thousands of flights now danced in his head.
	The gauntlet he'll walk to his friends waiting there,
	At the top of the Jetway, the end of the stair.
	
	A bitter-sweet feeling of time that's gone by,
	As the faces he sees through a tear in his eye.
	Congrats are in order, the job was well done,
	Thanks guys, gals, and Airplanes, it was really quite fun.

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