Chalk Dust

This is an airport poem.

We spent some time enjoying the delights of the Newark, NJ airport this past week, after a lovely sojourn with my relatives in the Philly area.

This is an airport poem in the sense that it was composed in an airport, mask on, surrounded by a sea of humanity. Weather had us bumped from timeslot to timeslot, an all too common experience these days, from what I’ve heard on the news. We were very happy to get home at last, having been uncertain for much of the day, whether we would end up in some airport hotel that night, instead.

My two souvenirs of the trip, one warm and lasting, the other warmer, but fleeting and ephemeral, were memories of being with family and a wicked sunburn. The irony is not lost on me that I went North, from Florida to Pennsylvania, only to encounter their hottest week on record, and to receive the worst sunburn of my adult life! Feeling much better now, only a little itchy and scratchy. I sure hope my relatives forgive me, for allowing the heat to bring out the grouch in me.

This poem actually deals less with travel or reunions than with the anonymous feeling of being submerged in a crowd, whether in person or online. There is nothing like being in a crowd to make one feel small.

As we age, we go from believing our every thought is a spark of genius, to realizing just how much of what we think and do has been thought and done before. That hurt disappointment in our all too common humanity is what this poem tries to capture.

Thanks for coming by to read!

Once, only I.

Now, everyone.

Now, everyone

Is I.

We think

We differentiate,

While merging

With the whole.

Original,

Yet typical,

Our thoughts

Are carbon copies,

So new to us,

Yet dated.

Thought by

Ancestors, before.

Figurative,

With images,

Concrete,

With graphs and numbers:

Unique, discrete

Accretions

Grow the

Socialistic block.

Both socialite

And hermit,

On or off

Our fine devices:

This world erases,

Claps away,

All memory

Of our chalk.

Copyright 2022 Andrea LeDew

For another poem inspired by a summer trip to reunite with family, read Superior Haunting.

For a poem set in an airport, as the news breaks about a political scandal, read Airport