Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Sensory Overload At The Gate

             Bones of a Tyrannosaurus Rex on display at the Pittsburgh airport

Strikingly thin Chinese woman                     
                                       Young man sporting dreadlocks 
Looking about like a jittery Chihuahua            
                                       Talking to a young woman  
Serious young black kid                                    
                                       Carrying a guitar case
Rapping along to his iPod                                  
                                       Decorated with paintings of
Nigga this and Nigga that                                  
                                       Flowers and declarations of  
Without regard for                                                  
                                       The power of love
Any of the people around him                      
                                       He's telling her he works at a dispensary
Looking nervous                                                 
                                       An MMA place in Denver
Much too fat college dude                                  
                                       She's wearing a spaghetti strap sundress
Wearing skinny jeans                                         
                                       That reveals her tattoos
Reading a book                                    
                                       Song lyrics, or lines of poetry
While leaning on a column                                                   
                                       Is that something by Dylan
Has spiderwebs tattooed on his elbows             
                                       On her left foot?
I wonder if he knows                                           
                                       The young man waits patiently
Those once meant you killed a black man         
                                       As she answers her phone
Two older women chat                                         
                                       Turning away from him I can hear her  
Amiably and animatedly                                      
                                       Tell the other end that she's on her way
One showing the other pictures                           
                                       To Boulder 
A man dressed in a nice suit                                
                                       To met someone she met online 
Working on a crossword puzzle                           
                                       The young man doesn't hear
A family of four sitting together                           
                                       She looks grim as she listens to the other end  
All of them look bored                                          
                                       Conversation over, she turns back 
A woman in day-glow sweatpants                                
                                       To the young man with the dreadlocks
Bright magenta like a Hi-lighter                           
                                       Says she could really use a smoke 
Working on a salad in a box                                 
                                       He nods in agreement

Loud speaker crackle and a school teacher voice announces preboarding of people who need assistance, mothers with toddlers, and our men and women serving in the military

Everybody looks toward the gate to see just who those people might be



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