Terminal

Like the airport terminal with a broad
Landing strip. With lounging chairs and
Small cafes, sleeping people and carpeted floors.
Announcements through the system:
Last call for at a boarding gate. Always paging for someone, everyone
Wondering whether the stranger eventually got on the flight.

Terminal, also as in, this is the end. Here there is
No transfer or turning back after check-in,
No planes coming in and flying out because
There is no control tower. Terminal is disorderly.
There is no one to wave sticks and prevent collisions.
The family has nothing in control and
Nobody to speak into their ears and guide their weary souls:
It is time to land, the runway is clear.

So they end up circling and circling, waiting
And waiting above the clouds, straining towards the windows to
Peer out at their home below the floating white icebergs. They
Eventually run out of fuel. And crash.
The person standing outside the arrival hall spots the family
That has finally started to move on.
They smiled and waved, then headed into the crowd and never turned back.