At the gate, I sit in a row of blue seats
with the possible company of my death,
this sprawling miscellany of people--
carry-on bags and paperbacks--

that could be gathered in a flash
into a band of pilgrims on the last open road.
Not that I think
if our plane crumpled into a mountain

we would all ascend together,
holding hands like a ring of skydivers,
into a sudden gasp of brightness,
or that there would be some common place

for us to reunite to jubilate the moment,
some spaceless, pillarless Greece
where we could, at the count of three,
toss our ashes into the sunny air.

It's just that the way that man has his briefcase
so carefully arranged,
the way that girl is cooling her tea,
and the flow of the comb that woman

passes through her daughter's hair...
and when you consider the altitude,
the secret parts of the engine,
and all the hard water and deep canyons below...

well, I just think it would be good if one of us
maybe stood up and said a few words,
or, so as not to invoke the police,
at least quietly wrote something down.

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