I dedicate this poem to those whose love will always remain with us.
News of
Dana
(for those we lost in the Dana Plane Crash- 3
June, 2012)
Before
it arrives,
We recline on the cold metal seats
Of the departure lounge, chat idly.
It filters through the aisles
Until we mouth the word ‘crash’,
Speak plainly to God about His mercy.
Our phones die quickly
From the din of anxious kin.
They have heard it too:
Beak broken, wings ablaze,
Dana has fallen out of the sky.
It penetrates our portable pads like poison,
We ignore the forty-four feet chasing leather
On local screens.
At arrivals, the joy of expectation takes off.
Tongues fold back, hearts pump,
Fear presses a nail on hope’s vein.
The horror is made true in images -
flames fanning a tail feather.
Then the flight manifest creeps into the conference room
Here, a terrifying call and response.
For every name, a chord is broken.
For every letter, a new reckoning with loss:
Of a father who will never come home.
Fingers fumble and scratch at numbers.
Of a mother who will never soften or soothe.
Legs weaken and bladders split open.
Of a sister whose face will frame a condolence register.
The concrete floor cannot comfort them.
Of a brother who will only be liked on a facebook page.
The walls offer no relief to the palms that pummel.
Of a child who will never whisper in deep sleep.
This is
neither night nor a dream?
A firm embrace
for the grieving,
one
heart beats the other.
We must
hold on to the living
In this moment
of melancholy.
The degrees that separate rise,
And clotted blood thins
into a common
stream.
-Lola Shoneyin
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