Rachel Hadas
In-flight Movie
As if this cramped tree-top, this swift savannah
Were not enough to make the message clear
Over seven numbing hours, we strangers
Trapped in transit, hunched together here
In Economy with less than no
Room separating thigh from thigh or knee
From knee or even bent elbow from waist
Are being shown a documentary
About primates. Hierarchic, fierce:
Cavortings, hunting parties, playtime. Group
Groomings and hootings gradually die down
As various families settle into sleep.
Across the aisle a father smooths a blanket
Over the child sprawled sleeping in his lap –
One of those airline coverlets which more often
Serve as symbolic surrogates for sleep.
The rest of us occasionally glance up
(No soundtrack needed – each supplies their own)
To verify the kinship, or to greet
The silent cousins capering onscreen.
Page(s) 10
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The