Plane Ride Home

I've been told I'm horrid with good-byes
but nothing you say could make me
want to stay
i'd prefer a window-seat please
and sit me by the ten year old if you have to
the incessant blah blah blah
-this kid told me she won't let me finish my book

she actually took it away from me
just so i'll talk to her
i guess she has to fly
back and forth, kc to cleveland
between parents that force her to hate them
on alternating weekends

you, on the other hand
haven't moved except to take some steps
backwards, into mud and filth
this plane ride feels like pneumonia
worsening the farther it gets

i start developing a panic
and all i can think is that
i wish i could ask the pilot to turn back around
this little girl and i are making noise like siblings
on a family road trip

i'm actually almost surprised one of the flight attendants
doesn't just snap and yell,
"If you two don't shut up I'll turn this damned plane around!"
(i think maybe i hope she would)
we get closer and
i feel like all the air is
funneling out of the cabin

the patchwork farms creep closer and closer
like cancer in a place
you didn't even know you could get it
(i didn't know a plane landing could make me
feel this way)
and an hour and a half after lift off
i'm hesistant to unload,
almost wishing i had missed my flight

[time to go home]