aloft;

I’d come back down from where

I sit in these casting net clouds

if I could—

on a First Class Emirates flight

from Dubai to Los Angeles,

or something of such, where for a

time I’m suspended above

and outside this moment;

 

ending up on a runway,

then taxiing to terminal,

then winding up in the arms

of the people who love me

more than I seem to “love” myself

and all of the universality that I bred

through countless nights spent alone,

and all of the contact that I let fall by the wayside.

 ­

Just as the auteur or archer sees

in all of the imagery

a place to seize the arm

of opportunity or destruction in another—

through the lens,

through the nock,

and through the notches

that help determine distance—

there’s me, in range.

---

[October 16, 2022]:

If and when the shoe fits, I’ll try on every one in that size.