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Propulsion Poem Written on an Airsickness Bag

Trisha Kc Buel Wheeldon

I see the turbine from my airplane window.

Not the sunlit views of my jigsawed hometown nor

The whipped layers of cloud we’ve risen above.

Only this loud sky breathing cylinder of revolving metal.

So close to me, a couple yards from the plexiglass protection,

equal to the distance from the foot of my bed to the door.

If the turbine were in my bedroom, the bedsheets and I would be sucked in.

We’re always so close to danger.

You, chopping the leaves off a beet with a serrated knife.

Me, submerging my head in the tub till the suds dissolve.

You, tilting your neck to shave around your Adam’s apple.

Me, sliding my hand up your sleeve

to grip the arm

that connects to your chest

that contains your heart. Here, more than any destination,

whispers deep that the turbine is not threatening to destroy me.

I’m in flight.

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About Trisha Kc Buel Wheeldon

Trisha Kc Buel Wheeldon doesn’t try to have a philosophical explanation for the callouses on the tips of her fingers or the electric fuchsia in the center of a peach, but she does. The lyrics of throwback artists like Stevie Nicks, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, and Elton John are often her most beloved poems. She studied creative writing at Brigham Young University-Idaho.

Filed Under: Poetry

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