The World According to Poetry #13
Flying Private
By Stephanie Wood Miller © 2019
Inside the gleaming aluminum husk
Flay low and silent
The tips of the wings
Turned up,
A fancy afterthought of the engineer’s design
I hear everything
The whispered conversation of the star
And his intimate, competent assistant
The flight attendant flushing the tiny toilet
The impatient agent clearing his throat
I long for the anonymity
Of a lumbering commercial jet
The familiar hum of the big engine
And the chorus of strangers’ cries, coughs and sneezes
That barely rise above the din
No one will notice what I read
Or what I wear
Or care how often I go to the bathroom
No one will snap my picture on the runway
Next to me a well-worn business traveler
Tapping secrets onto his laptop
Maintains the illusion
That we are alone
In a private world
Where we sit so close together
We can feel one another’s breath