Permanence of the flying buttress

A mechanism must be in place

for an arch to collapse

in both masonry time and space

then failure will perhaps

Occur because hinges form

allowing the arch to fold

the arch’s fate is torn

before it even gets too old.

But a gothic flying buttress

has no such possible way

for arch collapse to fret us

no mechanism any day

No hinge can ever work

it simply isn’t able

for flying buttress to lurch

is the stuff of fable.

A flying buttress can only fall

from a direct lightning hit

or settling underneath it all

perfect design, sums up it.