Sky Harbor

The flock of pigeons rises over the roof,

and just beyond them, the shimmering asphalt fields

gather their dull colored airliners.

It is the very early night,

a young brunette sits before the long

darkening glass of the airport's west wall.

She smells coffee burning

and something else- her old mother's

bureau filled with mothballs.

Her nearly silver blouse smells of anise

and the heat of an iron.

She suddenly brushes sleep from her hair.

I have been dead for hours. The brunette

witness to nothing studies her new lipstick

smeared on a gray napkin.

The fires of a cremation tank are rising ...

she descends into Seattle

nervous over the blinking city lights

that are climbing to meet her flight.

The old man seated next to her closes his book.

He has recognized her.

And leans into the window

to whisper, nothing happens. Nothing

ever happens.

NORMAN DUBIE recently published his twentieth volume of poetry, Ordinary Mornings of a Coliseum, with Copper Canyon Press. Copper Canyon also has just released the paperback edition of his collected and new poems, The Mercy Seat. Dubie teaches at Arizona State University.

photograph by Nash Cook

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