It may be surprising,
but the confrontation
with Real aeroplanes
often comes as a shock.
To begin with, we shudder at jet’s
Sudden Roar.
Aeroplanes turn out to be Noisy.
(They never were so
in our picture books or imagination).

Next, we resent being
Herded
into a Wide-Body fuselage
for transport to our Exotic Holiday.
The very act of embarking the aircraft,
being inside,
changes our feelings towards it.

We can no longer,
with our eyes,
caress
its smooth outside shape.
We can no longer dream
how it will traverse the sky
after a graceful start.

In our imagination
the aeroplane
is the perfect Man-Made object.
Imita­ting a living being,
it almost has come to life itself.

However,
Inside
of this almost-living being,
it turns out to be stuffy,smelly,
oppres­sive,
almost nauseating.

The interior flying machine
stacks its passengers
into a cramped,
crowded space.
Starved, strapped, sedated,
we are offered at most
a narrow glimpse of clouds,
earth and sky.

 Actually,
we aeroplane-lovers
are Bird-lovers.

We fancy birds,
we admire birds,
we wonder how they fly.
We would like to Be birds,
but we don’t necessarily
want to be
Inside.