UNEASY FLYER

next to you
is a pilot who
today is only a passenger

but nevertheless wise
to uneasy flyers
and he tells you: think

of air like water.
they have the same properties.
imagine you are

on a boat, bouncing across
the waves. you are
not afraid of the motion.

do you worry, he muses,
you'll drop to the bottom
of an ocean?

("actually one time
when i was nine.")

well you're not
going to drop
to the bottom of the sky,
at least not today.
which is awful

nice of him to say. you
don't tell him you know
two people gone
down in crashes and so
his analogy makes you think

more of drowning
than bouncing,
more of clinging
than letting go.