On The Longhaul Nightflight Poem by Roger Hudson

Waiting queuing
Queuing waiting
Checking double-checking
Security bureaucracy
Passports tickets baggage cabin hold
Waiting queuing
Queuing waiting
Till scramble on board
Slump in seats
Comfortable yet cramped
By overnight blanket pillow headphones
Hours to pass with movie videos
Old and new

Viking warriors carouse argue brawl
As stewards check seatbelts fastened
Hero chops cuts slashes in battle
Pause picture for tray-down foil-wrapped dinner
Monster swoops on Viking village
As passengers settle for sleep
Bites off tears off heads arms legs
As blinds down cabin lights out dark
And view in peace

Pause video for
Trips to toilet
to water dispenser
for aisle restricted exercise
As fellow passengers snore or view or read
Interrupting glamourous gilded monster's mother
Successively seducing kings
To selfscorn and death
Interrupting cat and mouse hunt
Of sherriff for hitman for victim
Bloodbath of pointless killings
Interrupting police detective hunt
For child abusers and disillusion
As nightdark metal tunnel throbs onwards through open skies
Alien worlds of fiction in alien world of long-distance flight
Driving out fears of falling from graceful skies
To hard earth crash reality many leagues below
Feeding imminent depressive mindwarp of jetlag