Airplane Mode

by Josh Dale

You can’t hear the whine of a subway car

when you’re affixed to the spalling concrete column

in front of you.

You can’t inhale smog and rust

with the wind to your back.

Mankind works perpendicular to nature

and veers away from the divine.

We live in the spheres of God

and snuff the Phoenix

when we extinguish the cigarette.

Forcing to mandate the real,

the caterpillar’s transformation is notlonger

a miracle.

Very closely, you shall go;

ear to the grass,

hear his whistle,

inverting sky to your eager eyes.

Run, run on the blade you craft!

But don’t suffer all that much.

The next train arrives in five.

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Josh Dale holds a BA in English from Temple University and has been previously published in 48th Street Press, Black Elephant Literary Magazine, SickLit, Your One Phone Call, and others. You may find him acquiring paper cuts at his small press, Thirty West Publishing House, founded in November 2015. He is also a proud cat dad to his fur baby,

Daisy, a rescue Bengal.