Terminal Poem by Max Dahlquist

Bleary-eyed and restless
strangers sit shoulder to shoulder
silently awaiting homecoming
or escape to parts unknown
praying for managable winds
and cloudless skies
like ancient sailors
transposed from sea to air
the young and their children
dressed in jarring colors
and filled diapers
ready to scream their way
to theme parks
with oversized dancing animals
and beaches with modest surf
and to amuse to death
old men with one-way tickets
who go knowing that this
is the last earthly gate
they will pass through
all together, at breakneck pace
they are thrown through the air
one common destination,
but they go to love, to learn,
to buy, to avenge
to murmur apologies
and fade off the earth