For Aaron Bushnell

by Jonathan M. Katz

He used a thermos. It was red and blue.
I doubt the history was on his mind,
of how it was that empires came to find
the many things a vacuum flask can do.
Not only holding lighter fuel, or foam,
or food to keep the tempers cool at night,
but gases—which, more often than you’d like,
drive million-dollar missiles into homes.