powered

The Ozone layer shields us from UV
absorbing photons in its short-wave slot.
Those photons leave behind their energy;
each daylong hour, the tropopause gets hot.
Earth's shadow cuts that flow off every night;
black-body radiation cools Earth's face.
IR flows out, that had in-come as light
a tepid ember radiates towards space.
Beneath, it's sport to soar the troposphere
where heating's driven by warm Earth below.
convecting thermals get me out of here
be it from foot-launch, or from aero-tow.
The solar fusion-pile supplies the drive
that makes a pilot feel that they're alive.