VERTIGO

The airport

Is so quiet

When there’s nobody here but me.

Walking through

The metal detector

Seems like another step to death

A doorway of spirits

Memories like thunderstorms

Surround my consciousness like minnows

The last look behind

As I place my foot on the plane

It’s the last chance.

The last time you will ever lay your eyes

On Appalachian altitudes,

Lichen covered leaves

Fallen on the foliage.

They say,

Last chance for what?

Last chance to stay in such a miserable climate?

No.

Last chance for desperate pleading not to go,

Last chance to say “Goodbye forever” to friends I now wish I never had,

If only to spare my forgotten memories.

The humidity,

Hated

Seems to wave a last goodbye,

And though they complained I now shed a tear.

Cicadas song mourns my leave.

In what used to be an irritant,

It now seems like a final hope.

I pick up my other foot,

Never to touch East ground again,

And darkness

Swallows

My mind.

-pigeon rose

pigeon rosepigeon rose