the plane i am on
There goes a little plane, a far away plane. From this far down they move so slowly. Placed within view for just two minutes before taking cover behind the clouds.
I used to wonder where the planes were going. Hoping, not quietly, to be seated on one.
There goes another plane. The previous one, long out of the airspace now. Do they always take off so close together? The first plane has circled now to my right. Two planes, back to back in one sky. They're on their plane, I'm on mine.
These days I like being about 1 inch off the ground (sometimes this is closer to 3, depending on the shoes). The only barrier between me and the dirt, a thin sole. I would be considered very lucky if I can get any closer. This ground isn't my ground, though.
They say it can take up to 24 months to feel at home when you arrive somewhere new.
Some say that feeling may never come at all.
I think I’ve done it in 9.
As soon as the weather warms, like birds migrating to their set destination, I get an itch in my heart to be back on the East Coast. I can’t imagine a summer without imaging the gentle water of the Northumberland Strait, the frigid cold of waterfalls that drip through the hills, and the hot steam that vaporizes off Halifax sidewalks. When you’ve spent 21 summers in one place, it can be hard to imagine anything else.
That itch is more of a tickle this year.
Right now I’m inland. I am someone who has moved to Ontario.
When I look back to the sky line, I see a plane half-way to the nearest cloud, the one each of them has hid behind. I don’t wish for one moment to be on it, where ever it is headed.
I want to be here, for a moment. As I have for the last month now. I can leave, and all I want is to stay.
Is this the magic of being inland and on ground?
Soon, I will hesitate to board the train to a different city. Just for a night. But for the first time, I don’t want to take the journey somewhere new.
There hasn’t been a plane in the sky just now, in the last few moments. And that is exactly how I want it.
xoxo, anna