LOVE POEM (WITH PLANE CRASH)

I’ve been following your flight from LA

to Atlanta on my laptop for the last two hours:

I think of the few inches between the freezing

air, empty of oxygen, at 36000 and your sleeping

face and head tilted to the left.

On CNN it’s always the same:

They find the parts of seats first,

then the tail fins,the contents of purses

and finally the torsos—all of them naked.

I know you are safe; I have talked you

Through this when I was flying dozens of times.

Still, I’m quietly willing the giant plane

To get here quickly and safely.

“Look, now she’s just north of Lubbock”

I think to myself, and so on.

Daniel Henry is Assistant Professor in Educational Foundations at Auburn University.