FIVE MILES UP
Posted on 8th July 2012Today my family and I will be travelling from Brazil to the UK, for a five-week visit.
It’s a long journey over (eleven hours.) Sometimes I manage to write something while I’m up there, in between places.
Once an incident on the plane inspired this poem…
FIVE MILES UP
Five miles above the cold sea,
I am asleep in the sky.
Then there’s an urgent whisper.
An air-hostess swishes by.
“Is there a doctor on board?”
she asks across the seats.
Heads shift on small pillows,
“A doctor? A doctor?” she repeats.
I wish that I could nod,
then stand up looking doctorly and assured.
And I wonder if one day I’ll hear,
“Is there a poet on board?”