For his pains
the boy got extra legroom.
They let him
sit upfront,
the boy shaped like a sunflower -
long, thin neck,
head round as a dinner plate,
a spray of straw-dry
blond hair. The pipes
God gave him
were defective;
I spent the flight
listening to him
tug on a clear plastic tube
that corkscrewed
round his ankles
like a waterslide.
I eavesdropped on the moisture
in his lungs, gazing
through the window,
down towards the ocean,
towards its golden heave and rise.
