Flying on Fat Tuesday
Susan Ashley Michael of Murfreesboro TN has attended workshops at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown MA. She spends her time reading, writing, and taking pictures, often from a Lake Amphibian LA4-200 seaplane.
Flying on Fat Tuesday
By Susan Ashley Michael
By Susan Ashley Michael
Red barns and shingled houses
pastures dotted with black crows,
silver silos foreshortened, battered,
and specks of white stone
that mark the dearly departed.
On Mardi Gras, 2010
tinsel twisted at the window,
a party hat rested on the sill at Hospice
as you enjoyed a last taste of vanilla ice cream
from a spoon warmed first in the palm of your daughter's hand.
Below, a train's wake of converging lines meets
the sky's rim, and from the milky
fracture at the horizon
a glimmer escapes like the dying light in a closing eye
while I try to stay in the middle of the air
away from the edges marked by the ground, buildings,
water, and trees.
As for interstellar space—
I hold a vision of
"Heaven" on a movie screen,
piano notes falling singly
a couple escaping
in a stolen helicopter
that climbs and climbs, becomes a dot,
and disappears into the blue
while in leather seats
you and I are served the best spaghetti Bolognese,
from Federal Hill,
the two of us alone, holding hands,
in a theater
in Providence.
Posted by Annmarie at 9/4/2011 8:26 PM 
Categories: words to linger on
Tags: Susan Ashley Michael Mardi Gras death memory mourning flying
Categories: words to linger on
Tags: Susan Ashley Michael Mardi Gras death memory mourning flying
I really like this.
while I try to stay in the middle of the air. Has a double entendre feel to it that really hits home with me.
"Heaven" on a movie screen.
thanks for sharing it with us.
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