I’m listening to the Byrds
\nas I nurse my gin and tonic.
\nThe airport din doesn’t
\noffer the best accoustics for McGuinn and Co,
\nbut the bar I’m sitting in
\ncould be extracted from here and plopped
\ndown on a street in my town,
\nso I double-check my belongings
\nand close my eyes a minute
\nto relax my nerves.<\/p>\n
Layovers just add a layer of anxiety that if I relax
\ntoo much, I’ll not hear my departure. My gate is within
\na good sprint from the bar. I don’t start a tab.<\/p>\n
By the time I touch down in Kansas City,
\nI know I’ll have to beseech a bleary-eyed airport
\nworker to conjure a taxi. Flyoverville’s hours aren’t
\nthat of the coasts, and I can already see the
\nbored expression of the taxi driver that eventually will arrive
\nan hour after I’ve landed.<\/p>\n
Now boarding, Denver to Kansas City.<\/p>\n
I grab my bag, leave a ten for my drink
\nand make a jagged run to the gate,
\nmy bag over my shoulder banging behind me.
\nI’ve just fished out my boarding pass
\nas the last person in line passes
\nthe metal detector.<\/p>\n
After being submitted to the body X-ray
\nand putting my shoes and watch back on, I
\nslip my earrings in my jeans pocket,
\nwhich I’m sure I’ll forget about and throw in the machine.<\/p>\n
I have a mid-plane seat, and am
\nsurprised to see how few passengers are
\non the flight. I have a row to myself,
\nbut am little inclined to take all three seats.
\nSleeping in public spaces might be my phobia.
\nI tuck my purse between myself and the window
\nand turn off the overhead light. <\/p>\n
No one looks at me
\nand I look at no one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m listening to the Byrds as I nurse my gin and tonic. The airport din doesn’t offer the best accoustics for McGuinn and Co, but the bar I’m sitting in could be extracted from here and plopped down on a street in my town, so…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-prompts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72496"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77256,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72496\/revisions\/77256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}