Early Morning Flight North

I've been away so long!  A full year has elapsed since last I posted any new poems...  Thankfully, the calendar page is once again turned to April, which just happens to be National Poetry Month!  There may be lots of things going on in my life that get in the way of my writing, but nothing stops me from celebrating NPM and participating in a Poem a Day challenge!  The first five poems this month have been written while I was away working up North.

April 1, 2019
The prompt for this poem, "write a morning poem", happened to arrive at 5:30am as I was sitting in the Perimeter Aviation terminal waiting for my flight.  I almost feel I cheated with this;  it's more observation than poetry.

Early Morning Flight North

You’d never know by looking at us,
swaddled in our down parkas, wool toques and scarves,
eyelids still heavy with sleep from the warmth of a car ride,
but we are all awake as we sit
hunched and silent
awaiting our northern flights.

Some of us are returning home. 
Yesterday’s doctor appointment.
The passing of an elder.
A nephew’s court appearance.
The Jet’s last home game of the season.
These are the reasons that brought us to the city.

Some of us are leaving home.
A 10-day shift at the nursing station.
Another school needs consultations students.
An attorney with Legal Aid is meeting with four new clients.
A water treatment facility needs another replacement part.
These are the reasons why we fly into the North.

We board 16-seat commuter planes that fly to communities
with names like:
Garden Hill/St. Theresa Point,
Shammattawa,
God’s Lake Narrows, and
Tadule/Lac Brochet.

Most of us will sleep on our flights, hoping to find
high ceilings with minimal crosswinds,
someone to meet us,
transportation from the airport, and
a bed to sleep in
when we get there.

These mornings when we sit in the air terminal,
hollow cheeked, sallow skinned with eyes half-closed,
you’d never know it, but we are all wide awake
as we view our own lives in transit,
broken down into primordial elements,
and packed neatly in our carry on.