Kristy Bowen, Unusual Creatures #24, 2015 (Artist Website)
Paper collage
It well may be that in a difficult hour
we make a mess. It’s no less beautiful when
across the aisle the seamstress spills her kit—
the steward walks on needles like hot coals—
instead of threading the mid-flight silver eye,
solving her puzzle. I love her no less
than I would the lovers who can’t make the baby
not cry. Who cannot make the baby. Who fail
far less at splendor than I. Hello, up there,
from down. It may well be I’m flyover country.
I walk on grass like needles where I walk—
no less in love, but terrified to spill.
Viewed from air and not the open ground,
and so too real and bound to disappoint you.