Patricia Jabbeh Wesley: Flying

We arrived in the windy city thirty minutes ago,

two hours delayed.

No apologies.


Many passengers are missing their connections,

but I opted in for a seven-hour layover

to enjoy the midwestern feel, after all.

Never seen a substitute plane in the US

until today, a generic plane,

with no United Airlines on it.


I tell you, flying in and out of Central PA

     has its upside.

There’s always material for poetry.


Have you ever heard an airline attendant say,

"We will be delayed

because the plane's computer is telling 

us that one of its engines 

is very low on oil?" Yes, low on oil,

like a car, like something 

that needs ground to ground it, 

like a motorcycle. And then a technician 

comes on board, screws things in,

while he’s on the phone.  

Thirty minutes, he’s still screwing 

the plane together. By then, I'm saying 


the Lord's prayer, the 23rd Psalm, 

the 125th Psalm, the Bible. I'm calling on Moses 

to part the Red Sea for me. 


            I want to grab my husband,

and run, but good old, trusting husband 

and comfortable Americans are sitting 

there, waiting for a screwed-up plane 

the way Americans wait. Silent, staring, 

         comfortably eating a donut, 

sipping a drink, unlike me, this Grebo 

woman who has seen death over and over.


Finally, the teenage-looking pilot 

needs a bathroom break, and he runs 

to the restroom. And another 15 minutes, 

the tech person leaves. We take off, 

             bumpy, a Canadian plane, 


I realize, and now I'm thinking of a lake,

where we can land, but the landing, 

bumpy, clouds, Lake Michigan, inviting, 

but thank goodness, the young pilots forgot 

to dump us in its blue foams, Lake Michigan, 

         blue, beautiful, and polluted, 

but it's still Lake Michigan.


When I grow up, I want to be a fish,

 a big blue fish if I ever grow up.

Copyright 2021 Patricia Jabbeh Wesley

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley’s many books include Praise Song for My Children: New and Selected Poems (Autumn House, 2020). She is a survivor of the Liberian Civil war and currently lives in Pennsylvania.