Luggage carousel at the airport 
after midnight
going round and round  

Some people have kids and grandkids

and friends of the kids and then their kids

so when these some people are about to die, 
all these kids show up with jokes and food and fun 
and Depends and plans for what’s next, after death, 
sort of: See you soon! Get a good table! 

And then there’ll be us others, kidless old people
like the last luggage on the airport carousel, 

going round and round

in the empty airport

after midnight. 

But, it’s ok. 

There’ll be a new flight in the morning

every seat filled, but spread out,

ALL class
seats soft as clouds almost as pretty

as the white ones out the windows,

like the ones we slept on 
(in our imaginations) as babies,

though these are real

piled up and up and up endlessly

into the blue sky above the blue sky. 

Maybe. 

And maybe is good enough. 

It’s a friendly flight,

endless champagne

shiny, soft, squirting fruit

no seatbelts

laughing kids loose in the aisles

acrobatic, loose in laughter

or sleeping, unalarmed. 

Us older ones watching them and loosening too,
learning from them and going in reverse,
back to before we got hijacked. 

No seatbelts. 

And a long movie!