Airport Terminal Confessions

The walk is the reward

I never understood this until I was given 11 hours in an empty airport terminal

Playing charades with the skeletons in my closet

I’m left screaming silence into the already deafening abyss

Until my voice gets adopted into a chorus

Each soul who has sat somber and solitary singing silence songs to space uninhabited 

Each step from the lonesome swan song clawing closer to keyhole clamped Sunrays 

Stripping shadows shedding layers like lace patterned lingerie 

Until the blackness is as naked as the reflection staring back

As I pick up pace from the empty airport gates

Passing windows so quick each wing spike flattens into dust clouds

Until planes turn to planes  

The landscape flying by like cruising altitude was street level 

Destiny compassed trajectory as the walk stretches from steps to sprints 

Destination always in the distance but home is lost in the rear view 

I’m learning how to crawl from empty corners of terminal futures 

Learning how to run from the siren song of silent lullabies played from a golden fiddle sounding too similar to the voice in my head 

I’m learning

With each step the next one seems lighter

The keyhole promising better tomorrows

Each second falling off the clock as it turns like broken doorknobs 

Have you ever sat in empty airport terminals with a life locked on the other side of an authorized personnel only door?

What lesson ends in deadend marathons?

Push on the door

It won’t budge

Pry on it until you swear it budges with each broken nail on your white knuckled hand

Kick it

Kick the door until the silence sounds like treble note pauses to the percussion of your bass filled boot print

When the door remains as solitary as your resolve

Turn around and run

Run the way you came

Past the planes of planes

Reach the dark place you started from

Turn around and take a running start

Make your spirit as solid as steel battering rams

Throw everything you have into opening the door at the end of your walk

When it breaks you

Sit still before storming off

And you’ll hear the latch swing open

As you stand up

And start to walk to the next door

Enjoying the trip