Airplane Poem // Louis Faber // Poetry

 

AIRPLANE POEM

He points to a poem in his book,

“This was an airplane poem.”

I read it carefully but cannot find

even a hint of a plane, or of the sky

for that matter, it is about a lake

and an older woman bidding it farewell

knowing her time has run short

and the cancer is ready to claim her.

I ask if he knew the woman, and

with a sad face he nods yes, “she

was my mother and this happened

many years ago, but it is still 

fresh in my mind even though I

was not there that day, off

on another business trip to God

knows where but He doesn’t care.”

I want to ask him why it is an airplane

poem but I suspect it is because

that is where he was when the events

occurred, where he was when

she finally conceded to the cancer.

Louis Faber is a poet and writer. His work has appeared in MacGuffin, Cantos, Alchemy Spoon (UK), Meniscus and Arena Magazine (Australia) New Feathers Anthology, Dreich (Scotland), Prosetrics, Atlanta Review, Glimpse, Rattle, Pearl, Midstream, European Judaism, The South Carolina Review and Worcester Review, among many others, and has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His new book of poetry, Free of the Shadow, was recently published by Plain View Press.