Off to Maui!

off on adventure!

at home in piedmont North Carolina

the sun sets and pulls my eyes and thoughts to the west,

the fulling moon to the east

diffident, and following the sun,

we fly out in the dark,

the moon behind us as if in pursuit,

yesterday’s sun before us,

today’s sun behind us, chasing the moon,

meanwhile clouds fog the view from the ground and the plane,

we switch planes in Texas and aim at Maui,

the day in Texas winter-gray, trees bare and waiting,

our first class seats and choices luxurious,

the 767 with 30 of us in first class,

a slew of others back of us,

I drink a mimosa, enjoy a choice of entire,

seats that can recline to the horizontal,

Hawaii calls us: beaches and flowers,

amidst intense volcanic landscape,

for hours we fly over dry plains and mountains,

until we cross a boundary,

and we’re over the great Pacific:

an expanse of water unfathomable in its immensity,

its deep blue dappled with lines and dots of clouds,

immensity beneath but more plane than contrast,

till we first see Hawaii!

inside we fiddled with food and drink and videos and naps,

cocooned and dreaming.

by Henry H. Walker

February 21, ’16