Poem to sundry notes: John Fahey Plays Poor Boy’s a Long Way from Home

Listen! To the late great John Fahey play Poor Boy (is a long way from home). You can come back here and read a poem for a frequent flyer because the music will open in a separate window.

“And birds of calm sit brooding upon the charmed wave” – John Milton, Ode on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity

Evenin’ folks, this is your Captain speaking.
I’m gonna fly this airplane
You gonna sit on your ass in First Class
And I am gonna set it down
In Chicago, on the ground,
Four short hours from now.
I am an older pilot, I like to do it gentle
I have learned to do it slow,
And I have learned to do it low,
Which I gotta do because indeed
This bird is tellin’ me we have a pressure bleed
Although y’all ask me my opinion
That light don’t know what it’s talkin’ about.
Nonetheless we’ll take it down
To 29 thousand feet
And adjust the speed, and arrive late
That ain’t great,
But it sure is grand
To be home for Christmas in this here land.
A big airplane is like rain
Or snow, if y’all know
What the hell you’re doin’.
Y’all look out your window,
That’s the Neah Point beacon, beckoning
The upper left hand corner of America,
If y’all don’t count Alaska.
Sarah Palin would if she could.
You gonna drink that booze,
It’s Christmas after all,
You can unfasten your seatbelts now,
The air is so strangely calm,
And you can dance in coach class,
As I bank into the final turn
And head straight on
Into the rising sun.

Edward G Nilges. Copyright 2012 by Edward G. Nilges. Moral rights have been asserted.