stark blue

[manawa]

I saw your hat bob through the terminal
flipping tassels to the other toques
and soon all that was left was a little blue beakon
bobbing in the distance
I breathed out a week full of empty air
and rolled it for your red carpet
so you'd arrive in style

everyone must have turned
everyone must have turned I would
I would have a taken your picture
and touched your dark hand
and sighed to the symphony of a stewardess' drone
cutting in and out of our atmosphere

I could have sat silent in the drum of my double heartbeats
I could have watched your antics through a half cracked smile
in the drum of my double heartbeats
I could have shook down to our tender fault lines
in the quiver of a blink

and you there with yourself outstretched
and your neck on a string
and your love on your tray table
you there with your jokes about safety procedures
and barf bags
and you there with a mountain hug
and a smoked cedar kiss

and you there whispering words out of my lungs
who never would have made it
through the battle with my throat
if it wasn't for your eyes in my windows
and the double drum of my heartbeat

But my oldsmobile is shaking no

Your eyes are already through security
and it takes more than half a woman
to run through an airport
so I'm sitting below the speed limit
behind a passable semi truck
puttering back through the sunday drivers
I'm passing through the pit stops
of hyper ventilation
trying to find my feet for the pedals
and there's so much honking
and the double drum beat of my heart
and I'm becoming the stranger
in my default setting
driving through a glassy october