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Screens
everyone is beautiful
in the morning
in the airport
impressively dressed in
pressed pants and pleated dresses
flowered scents and incense
freshly showered skin shines flat and dry in the morning sun
I catch the sun in the corner of my squinted eyelashes
and circular rainbows form in my periphery
an unexpected accent leaps from the mouth of a man I thought was native
but everyone in the airport looks like a friend to me
who knows where anyone came from?
but everyone is going somewhere
and everyone has a bag
ladies with purses, pushing carts
a group of middle school boys with back packs
hands in their back pockets
busy business men minding their business
holding briefcases containing briefs about cases
and their cotton briefs and glasses cases
everyone is walking quickly
checking departure times
on the screens briefly
in case they missed their flights
and the news is on the television screens
and someone else is dead
and there's war
and we are at war
with terror…
but no planes have crashed today
no planes have crashed yet today
will mine be the first?
who looks like a terrorist?
how do you profile hate?
who's got shifty eyes?
anyone could be holding the exploding bag
and you can't look in everyone's shoes
they could work there,
in security
everyone is suspicious,
eyeing me nervously
eyes darting side to side
person to person
flying is safer than driving
statistically,
the most common cause of death for people my age is drunk driving,
for older folks its cancer and heart disease,
terrorism doesn't even make the charts,
statistically,
but in practice,
everyone is a suspect,
I am a suspect,
I am on camera,
we are all on camera,
there are men and women in dark rooms
in dark suits and sunglasses
watching us on screens
they are the Men In Black
sent by the government
to protect us from the illegal aliens invading our country
Agents J and K vs. Osama Bin Ladin
can Tommy Lee Jones hunt down this fugitive?
can Will Smith upload a virus into the Al-Qaeda terrorist network?
Jeff Goldblum and Al Gore are back there too…
scanning the screens
monitoring the monitors
watching for terrorists
watching me
everyone is watching me
get on the plane
and on the plane
everyone is nervously
biting fingernails
tapping on laptops
listening to headphones
chewing on the ends of pens and pencils
drinking coffee or soup from thick mugs
moving hands
nervously
cracking knuckles
eyes darting
side to side
person to person
the plane is moving
we're all going somewhere
and we're goin' there together
we'll either reach our destination
or we'll go down in flames
and everyone on the plane is nervously imagining their death
I can see it in their faces
and it's been more than three years
but we're still so scared
we're at war with terror
fighting fear itself
doing battle with a concept
and you can't defeat a concept
the only way to defeat terror
is to stop being afraid