The Nervous Flyer’s To-Don’t List
Don’t try to analyze the engine sound:
the whine, the clank, the sudden change in pitch.
Don’t think about how far up from the ground
you’re strapped in, or about the tiny glitch
that might just bring you down. Don’t calculate
the heft of bodies, suitcases, and fuel
the plane is bearing—or the plane’s own weight.
Don’t ponder odds—it’s said they’re minuscule—
of crashing. Don’t rerun that Twilight Zone
on your brain’s doomsday screen; don’t try to see
that creature on the wing. Don’t draft your own
obit. And don’t dismiss the theory
that you’ll land safely in Madrid or Rome,
and—should the round trip not kill you—back home.
Jean L. Kreiling is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Home and Away. Her work has earned the Able Muse Book Award, the Frost Farm Prize, the Rhina Espaillat Poetry Prize, and the Kim Bridgford Memorial Sonnet Prize, among other honors; she lives on the coast of Massachusetts.