How long did you stare at the contrails so soft, that traced the planes path high above?
How big was your smile as you opened your arms, to welcome your travelling friends?
How eager were you for long-winded tales of holiday romance and love?
How sad did they feel as their far off vacation so quickly came to an end?
How well did they look as they told you their stories of cities packed tight, and the poor
Person who coughed at the back of the plane, they thought nothing of it at the time.
As so many more travellers criss-crossed the globe, who noticed the few who had sore
Eyes and throats: the slow mists of mucous, drawn into our lungs. Rewind!
And think of the outcome we could have foreseen, with such blinding clarity but,
The system that feeds us with dreams also covers our minds with an ignorant veil.
How obvious now that the easiest thing could have been to say: “Airports are shut!”
And the arteries over our heads full of death, clamped tight. But no.
We failed.
Eloquent. But what to do?… make public transit fare-free.
Don’t fly? I manage ok without it – no one needs to; it is only the way we have decided to structure (fragment) our lives which means we feel flying is essential.