Marc J. Sheehan
Our Pilot Announces the Beginning of our Descent
even though we’ve already felt and heard
the adjustment of the wing flaps nosing
the airplane down through cumulus toward
the landing strip, that anti-dragway on which
we will de-accelerate as quickly as the laws
of physics and the tolerances of various
metals allow. And now a combination
of restlessness and anticipation take hold—
an air-borne virus that begins with a single
passenger turning off her halo, closing
her mystery and getting ready to leave her seat.
Below, the ground starts rising toward us.
For those of us who live here, we begin
to recognize landmarks, like those arteries
the city uses to pump itself out to the exurbs.
We feel a pang of something—not guilt, although
guilt always pangs—but a sense of descending
into a past that is no longer the past,
but some unprepared-for present. Think of
that dream in which you understand
your graduation depends on a class
you skipped all semester. It’s always History,
and the final exam takes place right now. Although
maybe we’ve mis-heard. Maybe we’re beginning
our dissent. Maybe we are about to start
a new Eden with our refusal to jostle each other
just to be one step closer when the exit
whooshes open and we make our way
calmly as cattle toward the terminal.
Or maybe, rules be damned, we’ll unfold our wings
and erase all the wrong answers we penciled in
like appointments we never intended to keep.
Maybe we’ll vote for someone sane next time.
Now, the airport tower and our cares and concerns
rush toward us at an alarming rate until
the jet slows and ends our little hiatus.
We stop. Seatbelts unclasp with the sound
of dozens of metal cicadas awakening.
Aisle-seat passengers retrieve carry-ons
while the rest of us stand uncomfortably below
the overhead bins, stooped from the weight
our lack of ascension has placed on our backs,
while the pilot wishes us the best of luck
on reaching our final destinations.
Marc J. Sheehan is the author of Dissenting Opinion from the Committee for the Beatitudes (Etchings Press, 2019), a collection of flash prose pieces. His poetry collection, Limits to the Salutary Effects of Upper-Midwestern Melancholy, won the Split Rock Review 2016 poetry chapbook competition. His earlier poetry collections include Vengeful Hymns (Ashland Poetry Press, 2009), winner of the Richard Snyder Prize, and Greatest Hits (New Issues Poetry and Prose, 1998). Sheehan served for many years as the communications officer for Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan, and lives in Grand Haven, Michigan.
SUBMIT to What Rough Beast via our SUBMITTABLE site.