Delayed Flight


Checks and balances...
Ledgers and taxes;
Memos, proposals -
Thousands of faxes.
Pack 'em and stack 'em,
And label them good;
Truck's full of orders,
Now do what you should.

In line, she shuffles
With company mail,
Her gaze falls upon
Seas and wind-swept sail
Portrayed on a stamp -
Also planes, mid -flight,
With trains on tracks to
Horizon's twilight...

Then back to the grind,
And that ornery lot
Of underpaid help
And a boss who's a sot;
All for a nickel,
dime, or half-dollar
Cheap penny-pinching's
Making her holler!

So to scrimp and save,
Again on the bus;
Acting the miser
To the bank, entrust
Her weekly pittance
Until she retires
Slowly increasing...
Her dreamed desires.

At last! Her escape,
From work's hill of beans.
Now an old woman
Of adequate means,
She's boarding her plane;
The journey well-planned
To destinations
Of dreamed far-off land.

She ticks them all off -
Her list of top ten,
While ticket agents
Help her up, and then -
Down the boarding bridge,
And into the bird
She shows her ticket
And without a word...

Takes her assigned spot-
The seat is first-class;
Her cane by her side,
Without she can't pass.
Last minute details
Keep flight crew busy
The takeoff's near; she's
Suddenly dizzy.

Eagerness courses,
Her full heart's soaring!
Thirty years, working;
Now Engines roaring.
Buckle up, sit tight;
She's soon ascending...
Work and drudgery
Meets happy ending.