Friday Poetry

New thing I just decided two minutes ago. I'm going to post a couple poems I like each Friday. They can be super shitty/corny (by me), or they can actually be good (by someone else). My coworker is real sweet and sends me lots of fun little poems and stories every week. So today I have a poem by Sherman Alexie. After having worked in the airline industry for a couple years, I can definitely relate:

Sherman Alexie (born 1966)

"On Airplanes"

I am always amused.
By those couples—

Lovers and spouses—
Who perform and ask

Others to perform
Musical chairs

Wherever they, by
Random seat selection,

Are separated
From each other.

“Can you switch
Seats with me?”

A woman asked me.
“So I can sit

With my husband?”
She wanted me,

A big man, who
Always books early,

And will gratefully
Pay extra for the exit row,

To trade my aisle seat
For her middle seat.

By asking me to change
My location for hers,

The woman is actually
Saying to me:

“Dear stranger, dear
Sir, my comfort is

More important than yours.
Dear solitary traveler,

My love and fear—
As contained

Within my marriage—
Are larger than yours.”

O, the insult!
O, the condescension!

And this is not
An isolated incident.

I’ve been asked
To trade seats

Twenty or thirty times
Over the years.

How dare you!
How dare you

Ask me to change
My life for you!

How imperial!
How colonial!

But, ah, here is
The strange truth:

Whenever I’m asked
To trade seats

For somebody else’s love,
I do, I always do. (149-151)


from War Dances. New York: Grove, 2009. Copyright 2009 by Sherman Alexie.

And, being that I'm in an unusual, romantical mood (for reasons I'm not ready to go into) I will also post this:

Jane Kenyon (1947-1995)

The Shirt

The shirt touches his neck
and smooths over his back.
It slides down his sides.
It even goes down below his belt—
down into his pants.
Lucky shirt. [1978]