Low Flying Planes

They are everywhere
low flying planes
over small patches of mountains
over office buildings
they don'r fill the space
between my thumb and index finger
from where i sit
on my balcony
 
low flying planes
small and silent
one after another
i watch them to take my mind away
 
I'm a wildy repressed
primal jungle girl
dancing to tribal rhythms
trapped in an aging caucasian city life body
giving another little piece of myself to the sky
every day
 
low flying planes
more powerful than they look
everything's at a distance
dreams suspended in mid air
 
last week
or was it month
there was a Southwest Airlines plane
outside my American Airlines window 
it was going fast!
like a barracuda
overtaking prey
while I just hung there
like a whale
in the sky
we were both on the descent
low flying planes
 
when I was young
we had the sky
all to ourselves
 
Low flying planes
they are everywhere now
38 million a year
in adjacent lanes
I saw two more that day
from my window seat
 
I like the flow
of low flying planes
one after another
I like their graceful velocity
the only thing fast
in my life
is the passing of years
 
Yesterday
I was nearing the airport
a United plane
descending over my car
a low flying plane
like a crazed shrieking bird
it was both too close
and too far
 
there's an airport in the Caribbean 
just over a public beach
planes pass over heads
people last second ducking
so many near misses
low flying planes
screaming with power
morbidly close
if I were there
and I want to be there
I would reach up
to the roaring
larger than life monster
hoping to grab a wheel
reveling in the pretending its possible moment
 
reluctantly happy  
afterwards
that it wasn't