Poem: Airports

Airports

I’m unsure if the planes,

the tickets,

the luggage

or people

are where the spark is set,

but airports set my life

alight.

Those birds, those

steel

birds,

flying though heavier

even

than our hearts can get…

Those engines roar of hope

and chances.

The tickets…

each a checkpoint, a gateway,

a shot at the other side.

The luggage…

my home for six months,

still my world more spacious than runways.

And the people?

They’re telling stories

even when passed out across Departures.

That girl there’s in transit;

that guy there’s apprentice to this all.

And that one there?

It’s hard to tell.

They could be tears of joy

or of farewell.

Peach is a well-known performance poet living in Adelaide, who has also performed around Australia, in New Zealand, the U.S. and U.K. He founded Adelaide’s Tatenda Open-mic Poetry event and has published three books of poetry, in When We Were Young, A Book of Prayers, and Forever Again. More about Peach and his work, can be found here.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Michael Coghlan