Flight 9451

These are the thoughts that ran through my head as I waited for a late night flight in Miami.

Flight 9451

All alone in a crowded atrium

A thousand strangers zipping by

A thousand faces buried in a thousand phones

A thousand conversations on the side

A thousand stories I am not a part of.

A line for the restroom that never seems to die

And a thousand people leaving a thousand messes behind.

A face shrouded by a hideous pink scarf stole my seat while I was away.

Some old woman I never knew died today.

Her family sits across from me

All dressed in black

Crying.

Some stranger somewhere robbed a convenient store today.

I know.

Some idiot left his headphones at home and is listening to the news on full volume.

Someone suddenly screamed louder than the news blasting beside me.

It was a group of students from some strange school I don't remember.

They were playing a game and one student accidentally struck another

And the entire lot of strange faces burst into laughter

A thousand laughs at a thousand rhythms and pitches.

My flight was delayed

Though the airline maintains it was no fault of their own.

You can't fly if there's a single cloud out of place.

That's fair I guess.

They have no power over the weather.

In the air some fat kid drooled on my jacket.

An older man asked to trade seats with me.

He had a window while I had the aisle

And he really, really had to pee.

Outside the world grew smaller

Foreigners and familiar faces faded all the same.

Green grass on brown hills on blue waters

A whole world out there thousands upon thousands of times larger than any individual

It held a thousand times a thousand stories

A thousand events happening simultaneously

And when one reel stops a thousand more roll on.

The world never stops turning.

And as I watched the world grow smaller from the airplane window, I realized it was larger than life.

Author's Note

Please comment and let me know what you think.

Reviews

[Ghost writer]

I often this about that, that every person on the street or in a plane or across the world has a store too, some people will never be more than a person on the street to you, but then again so was your best friend before you met them, this makes me think, it's very good

[emptyinkwell]

Thanks for the review! The weird backstory behind this is that I read somewhere that the average person will walk past 30 criminals in their lifetime and most of the time they won't even know it. It's impossible to remember every face you passed and every name you heard, but that doesn't mean they don't have stories. I love this phenomenon.

[Ghost writer]

me too, love that everyone has a story, even if we will never know it.

[...]

You have good observation of reality. Yes airport can be funny and frustrating place in one time. Your words have nice flow. And poem itself hold well together.

[emptyinkwell]

Thanks for the review and kind words!

[...]

You welcome this poem is really good.

[Great Aunt Astri]

A bleak picture indeed, you have painted with your observation. Your detailed description made me feel that I was there beside you. And as you say 'when one reel stops, a thousand more roll on.' It all seems pretty dreary. But sometimes one can look on with a bit of amusement and sympathy. I like the sense of awe in the last line.

[emptyinkwell]

I was indeed trying to show that reality - which is that none of us really matter all that much - is dreary. I used the characters around me - each of whom have their own unique story - to emphasize that none of these strangers matter to me nor I to them. Thank you so much for the review!

[kitty]

The perfect scene of today's society. And life itself goes on in it's own old quirky way today
: leaving us room to ponder why it always has it's way! Liked it! Factual. Real!

[emptyinkwell]

This is the exact sentiment I was trying to convey. Thanks for the review!

[Phill Oz O'fee]

Love the humorous satire - and the 'more real than you think' psychology behind the subject matter. But hey, could have been worse, the plane could have been so old it had outside toilets – now there’s a thought … bless! :-)

[emptyinkwell]

Haha, I've never even heard of outside toilets. That's insane! Thanks so much for the review!

[John Alexander McFadyen]

This tells a tale we have all experienced and captures it with detail and pace and places it within context. Darkly humorous.

[emptyinkwell]

It is my goal here to portray a bleak reality with what I hope can be considered witty jokes. Humor brings light into the darkness, after all.

Thanks for the review! I am so glad to know that there are people who can relate to this.

[Tony Jordan]

Don't take offence but my head quickly applied the voice of 'Stewie' off of 'Family Guy' to this as I read it. Which gave it more acidity than it already had (if that was possible). I think anyone who has flew recently can relate to this. I liked the ending - there's something special, no matter how many times you observe it, about seeing 'down there' reduce to ant-size and pondering.

[emptyinkwell]

LOL I'm not at all offended by your comment. I feel like the older I get the more I relate to Stewie and his pessimistic world view. Ironically, I consider myself an optimist.

I wrote this in hopes to showcase the bleak truth - that no matter how our stories pan out, how many people we touch with our presence, the world will go on without us all the same. It is this realization that helps me feel less sorry about my own failures and shortcomings and more humble about my successes as I know that I am just as important to the grand scheme as anyone else. Was this the general vibe/theme you took away from this poem?

Thank you so much for the review! I think I must agree with you that I sounded very much like Stewie.

[Tony Jordan]

The main vibe was , yes... one of resigned to being as equally unlucky as everyone else. (Stewie rocks by the way !!)
Welcome emptyinkwell.