Heavier-Than-Air Machines - May 1 2022

 

Heavier-Than-Air Machines

May 1 2022

The airport,

that modern cathedral of soaring glass

and high technology,

is thronged with exhausted folk

who are either tired of waiting

or frantically late.

They sprawl across fixed rows

of badly padded seats.

Bargain

with overwhelmed children,

struggle

with overloaded baggage carts.

Stew in slow-moving lines.

The men

dressed like boys

in backward baseball caps

unflattering shorts;

the women, just as practically

in stretch pants

and flat-soled shoes.

Hardly their Sunday best.

No fashion statements, or elegance

in this grand concourse

of world travellers.

The miracle of flight

no longer impresses,

and who cares what others think

when the consensus of casual wear

is universal.

An excited child

stares wide-eyed

out the floor-to-ceiling glass

as planes take-off and land.

Disillusion may come later,

but for now

he's a believer;

because if heavier-than-air machines

do not fall from the sky,

then what other marvels are possible

under heaven's watchful eye?

But his parents

whose long day has just begun

are too frazzled for wonder.

Drinking cold coffee

from a paper cup.

Their connecting flight

held up.

And in the over-heated air

the faint but heady smell

of jet exhaust

and burning rubber.

I hate travelling. As a homebody, naturally. And flying, especially; because airports are a test of endurance and forbearance, as well as a source of anxiety for those who either fear flying, or fear missing their plane, or both.

Which seems ungrateful, because flight is miraculous, and airports are one of the last of the grand public places. In the old days, people dressed up to fly: men in suits and ties, ladies in clever hats and white gloves. In other words, airports are cathedrals of modernity; and once I wrote this (or something like it), the religious metaphor was set. As well as the recurring contrast between architectural grandeur and harassed distracted people; between high ideals — a connected world and elegant travellers — and the mundane reality of flying buses.