The Plane Leaves at Dawn

Verse 1 The field is a blank page the war keeps trying to write on. Searchlights behave like questions. He puts the letters in Victor’s coat as if paper could bless a marriage. Verse 2 He tells me I would regret the chair in the café. He tells me I am part of the work now. He is kind enough to decide so I will not have to hear myself choose him in front of a man who has already died for the century. Chorus The plane leaves at dawn. Engines like a promise made to someone else. I take the seat that is not mine and practice looking forward. Verse 3 Victor takes my hand. He believes we have been saved together. I let him believe it. Belief is one of the last clean rooms. Bridge A shot happens behind us. A policeman chooses a friendship the way other men choose wine. I do not turn. If I turn I will get off. If I get off the work ends in a doorway and I become a statue with a good coat. Chorus 2 The plane leaves at dawn. Africa falls away like a sentence I cannot finish. Rick becomes a shape, then a story I will have to tell carefully so it does not sound like a door I still want opened. Out Do not look back. Looking back is how statues are made. I am done being marble.