Carlee Wilson
MA Candidate in Conflict Transformation & Social Justice
14/04/2020
Tables bare in convenience store
Cafeteria white cashiers
Speak in native tongue
Switch seamlessly into my language
Take all currency from traveled hands
I buy salt black as a volcano
The darkest thing in sight
Is the nothingness outside the windows
Reflections of ourselves staring back, waiting
Elevator music and quiet murmurs
Until we step into the cold
Wheels on pavement
Then takeoff
One reply on “Keflavik Airport”
Very evocative poem, Carlee. Two months into the (now slowly lifting) lockdown, it makes me nostalgic of airport spaces, but also reminds me of my anxiety during that last flight to Edinburgh on 5th March and the train and taxi journey to St Andrews. That’s when I discovered, like everybody else, how hard it is not to touch your face, and not to hug friends. In this case PhD student Holly Warner, who had defended her PhD thesis (fascinating, on music composers in Belfast studios) and the anthropologist Nigel Rapport, her supervisor.
I hope to be able to read more of your poetry in the future!