Tuesday, October 22, 2013

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