Fear Of Flying

 

I dreaded the sunlight with its power to age

those lines that etched in the skin

turning it leathery and cracked.

 

Staying in the darkness

my way of avoiding the risk

that my flesh would become so dry,

long before I was old.

 

Couldn’t dare to go near an airport

for surely flying into the sky

would produce such danger

from being closer to the dark star.

 

Days spent inside like a prisoner,

though it didn’t keep my from noticing birds,

refused to risk wrinkles

when preserving night

was the way I felt my youth would survive.

 

Years slipped by and I watched

the panorama of clouds and winds

dance their life before my eyes,

wishing once I had ridden that plane

somewhere beyond my closet.

 

Then one morn I just couldn’t stand

another hour hiding from the rays,

strolling out into the brilliance

discovering an old man

where in the blackness I felt nearly immortal,

yet feeling peace I had never known

from the warmth the outside brought,

giving my joints,

which ached in the coldness,

a chance to be free from that pain.