poem of the day 10.22.13

egoist

the airplane goes

from rocking to swaying

back and forth

i’m trying to watch the superman movie

but i can’t concentrate

all the crashes and thuds

i can’t tell if they’re from the movie

or from the plane

i pause the movie and try to stand up

what are you doing? my wife asks

i can’t do this, i tell her

as the plane sways from left to right

i have to get off this thing

and go where? she asks

she has a point

i mean we are 36,000 feet in the air

which makes this swaying over utah

all the more unnerving

fuck this, i say

fuck traveling and going anywhere

because i can’t do this shit anymore

it’s just turbulence, my wife says

look around you

no one else is freaking out

it’s true

one lady is reading the san fran chronicle

and some kid is eating popcorn and playing on an ipad

to hell with them, i say

they’re all fools and commoners

c students with loan debt

office drones

blank video game kids without a chance

retirees sucking up our social security

when this plane goes down

the only people who will miss them

are the census takers and the irs

oh that’s real nice, my wife says

i’m a poet, i tell her

a goddamned wordslinger

and i have a novel coming out this year

small, minute enclaves of people

will be devastated when i’m gone

are you listening to yourself? she asks

yes, i say

as the plane sways and bumps

and dips left

when it comes to life and death

i’m an egoist and i can’t help it

uh-huh, my wife says

she returns to watching her movie

while i sit there surrounded by calm dullards

playing nose dives and other death scenarios in my head

eventually the bucket of bolts settles and so do i

i go back to the movie too

back to superman saving the world

striving for truth and justice

while i go the american way

of self-righteous indignation

me versus everyone else on this plane

as i leave one coast rocking

readying myself once again

for the turmoil of the next