by Joshua Beckman

Melbourne, Perth, Darwin, Townsville,

Belm, Durban, Lima, Xai-Xai planes

with wingspans big as high schools

eight hundred nine hundred tons a piece

gone like pollen1, cumulus cirrus

altostratus nimbostratus people getting skinny

just trying to lose weight and the sky

the biggest thing anyone ever thought of

Acceptance2, Vancouver, Tehran, Maui

school children balloons light blue nothing

one goes away not forever, in fact

most people, at least if you are flying

Delta3, come down in Salt Lake City

Fairbanks, Kobe, Aukland, Anchorage

from Cleveland a hundred Hawaii-bound Germans

are coming in low, not to say too low

just low pull up Amsterdam pull up Miami

historically a very high-strung bunch

smokers4 eaters tiny planes must circle

we have bigger problems on our hands

New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris

the boy who has been ignoring dinner

throws thirteen paper planes out the window

does it look like this? Tashkent, Nome, Rio,

Hobart, yes yes it looks just like that

now do your homework Capetown Capetown

lots of rain good on one good on two

go three go four go five go six

Mau, Brak, Zella, Ghat, an African parade

good on two good on three

please speak English please speak English

good on five good on six gentlemen:

the world will let us down many times

but it will never run out of coffee

hooray! for Lagos, Accra, Freetown, Dakar

your son is on the telephone the Germans

landed safely Seattle off to Istanbul

tiny planes please circle oh tiny planes

do please please circle