(Aeroporto di Palermo) (Sicilia 51)

they came calling for passengers.
“Heaven express!”
and I queued with the rest of them.
they paraded the images of all that is joy in life
in front of me and all the others.
we drenched our tongues with saliva in anticipation.
it wasn’t that we regretted our homes,
mine, for instance, melts every night
only to be frozen by morning
with the fresh dawn chill
ready to be cracked and broken by these ice picks.

but it wasn’t to be so hard,
even to be lined.
it was more instantly that we found the express
already moving beneath us.
the charming skies they had painted
started fluttering.
the clouds molded over the rocks and
flowed like a river of white suds in the stream.
we were already on our way,
strange.
no one had expected such pleasure to take us early.

no, everything we found was not perfection.
but the flaws, in this state of mind,
gave such closure instead of opening our negativity.
only in the lights that otherwise would be off
did our adrenaline slow and did the
endorphins challenging any prior notions of
what is essentially good.

they came calling for passengers.
“Heaven express!”
and we were still so overwhelmed that
the line was only gradually growing.
surrounded by so many foggy days
we bewildered our minds in the lost spaces.
we didn’t know, nor want to, grasp at
any further realities.
we looked around and confused our senses
with over-empowering strong reactional things
the sights wanted to be heard.
the sounds wanted to be felt.
the smells wanted to be tasted.
the feelings wanted to be inhaled.

they stopped calling for passengers.
Apparently, those in the know had already departed.
I, thankfully,
blissfully lost in the clouds
graciously clueless to any parting vehicles,
did not leave.

I stayed on, every second tick marking
success on my part to be whole.
to be found, freed, frozen in a fever of fearlessness.
the aches didn’t matter,
nor did the exhaustion.
and in the exhaust that slowly appeared
following their departure,
I inhaled. deeply.
for such knowledge of bliss has been so rare.
not like me to dwell,
as I have. but when called,
I know everything will be alright.
I’m just so far, far away from such a need,
now that I’ve been here.