Friday, December 7, 2012

Poem of the Week--Floating



(I was reminded of this poem by my former student, Skye Nightingale Robertson. Thank you, Skye. I wrote it in 1990 when my brother was a pilot for Delta Airlines and I was getting up early to teach school.)

Just before the clock radio

Snaps on, I am floating in the dark


Somewhere between sleep and waking


Somehow I know


At this moment


In another time zone


My brother is landing


Suspended forty feet ahead of


Wings he cannot see


He grabs a handful of throttles


And pulls them back.


The turbines settle toward silence


Wings flex slightly upward


And the rippling fuselage sags


Toward the black-streaked runway.


For a moment, we float together,


Buoyed by air trapped beneath the wing,


In the second between flying and waking


In the moment between dreaming and landing


We float toward earth


And the dark dawn.



--Dan Verner

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