Tag: flying

The Bird in Concourse A by Caitlin O’Halloran

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The Bird in Concourse A

The bird in Concourse A has been here so long,
it scarcely remembers the outside world.
A security guard tried many times
to capture it with a net,
but every time it flew away,
seemingly happy with the lot it was given.

Here, it lives among weary travelers
who drag their suitcases behind them,
carry neck pillows purchased at newsstands,
and sit by the gate for flights that are always delayed.

It likes to drink from the dregs
of a McDonald’s soda machine,
bathe in the drinking fountains,
and watch the conveyor belt
where baggage spills onto a silver riverbed,
like water cascading over rocks.

*

Caitlin O’Halloran is a biracial Filipino-American writer living in Rochester, New York. Her poetry has been published in literary magazines, including Third Wednesday, Vast Chasm Magazine, The Basilisk Tree, Apricity Magazine, and Remington Review. caitlinohalloran.com

Searched by Laurel Benjamin

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Searched

Freshly lopped off like prey
I’m caught once again at SEATAC
baggage searched
like I have a mark on my forehead
saying “stop me.”

I can hear the engines roar
picture my plane
like an owl trying not to be seen—
it will carry me to the island.

I have nothing to declare
except the loss of my mother
stomach turbulence
as the employee pulls out packing cubes
trying to locate an offence.

He zips open my toiletries kit—
“What’s this for?” he asks of the face cream.
The one my mother used.

I need to make the connection
a whole day flying
over the ring of fire
as if each volcano
will reawaken.

*

Laurel Benjamin is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she invented a secret language with her brother. She has work forthcoming or published in Lily Poetry Review, Black Fox, Word Poppy Press, Turning a Train of Thought Upside Down: An Anthology of Women’s Poetry, South Florida Poetry Journal, Trouvaille Review, The Fourth River, Limit Experience, California Quarterly, Mac Queens Quinterly, among others. Affiliated with the Bay Area Women’s Poetry Salon and the Port Townsend Writers, she holds an MFA from Mills College.