Red Eye

The airport rotunda is lively tonight.
Lights are out on Rodeo Drive.
Traffic was slow on the Ten, but
you'll be able to make your flight.
There are times you'd like to dive
behind a wall of sound, or cut
from the left lane to the right,
around wheeled carriages and bags.
You've been working on projects
merely to pass the time; a Chinese man
holds a document in his hand;
his friends, who may be family,
listen carefully as he tells them --
you can only guess, since you do not
speak Chinese -- of its great value
as both directive and collectible.
We all should have copies.
An observant Jew -- you can tell
by the yarmulke -- with a phone
in each hand, one to each ear,
slips one to a seated, middle-aged woman
who does not get up, merely leans.
These scenes are best described
as the sum of events on the cusp
of midnight before the red-eye blinks
over Sydney, Melbourne, D.C., New York.
This beta site at the edge of the New World,
from the broken chair to the flying wing.