We are flying white air. The most pioneering
falcon of all is hopelessly beneath us.
Nothing above but sky bleached out
by the sun’s remorseless hammering
through ozone. Our lives inch back below,
the farm gray because a cruel past, weather
or mother, turns the spirit gray. The oldest
daughter left one day for good. The first son
(how can I know this at this altitude)
is trapped for life. At best, he can only get rich.
What good reason could the pilot have
for suddenly pointing the plane at the sun
and cutting the power? I hear his
hysterical laughter all the air down
to rock. We implode into acres
of black we rehearsed every young rage.
Another farm, tiny as the attendant’s voice
on the defective intercom slips back
beneath us, bright orange this time and home.
We are flying white air.
The aluminum creaks. The wing shudders.
We are flying rough air. Remember
the wing snapping back over Europe
(where was that?), the agonizing sheer
you saw in slow motion, the vomit
you held back with prayer, and your friend
spinning down fatal ether
man had no business in. Back at the base
you were sobbing fields away from the rest
and the shepherd in black offered you pears
and wouldn’t take your money. You claimed
you paid him with tears but that made no sense.
The air is solid again. We eat our way north.
We are flying good air.
We have entered the pattern.
Power reduced. Flaps down. Seat belt sign on.
In a moment, no smoking. This is always
a major kind of return. Thirty years ago
we came down and laughed and shook hands
after a rough one. We congratulated ourselves
for being alive. Long before that
we were ignorant farmers. Remember the night
you came home cheated in town of the money
you’d saved to paint the farm green.
Your wife called you weak and you stammered
and wept. Late one morning years later,
drunk and alone, you remembered above us
air is white, and you knew your next wife
would forgive you, your crops come
fatter than clouds, old friends return.
We have landed on schedule. Reverse thrust.
We are safe. We are natural on earth.