Six Notebooks

As we takeoff I open the shade
To see the land fall away
The sun, the clouds, mostly it’s haze
Up and to the sides but below
I see the Home Depot bear my brother’s house
The goodwill, the Minnesota River which
Is more like a slow moving swamp
Than the Mississippi that it joins
Just downstream, we climb
Only my shade is up,
Only I parse the sky, the ground
I ponder why the others
Is it fear of some sort that
Keeps them from opening
Fear of people close to them not
Wanting to see or their own fear
Of seeing the ground drop away
Or something else? We are
All unknowable ultimately, all a cipher
Often I am a cipher to myself
I do know that, I want to see
To witness, as the plane climbs
As the ground fades, and it’s never
Far from my mind that the climbing
Plane, the takeoff could be the last
Moment, I want to see it all
This, both the wanting and this could be
Last moment, both these thoughts
Are always true

PWS 2023.06.22