dealing with vagaries

“measures of mercury”

1000
1000
1000
feet above silent
crust
I cruise at altitude
bathed in the exhalation of others
while warning whispers
staccato blush our aura

I want to crawl
through the plexiglass
I want to stand on the flexing wing
before I dive
through layers of atmosphere
before I plummet
through layers of sparse molecules
and gaps that can’t be shaken by sound

I would eventually land in the sea
somewhere between two continents
irretrievable
and impacted
into my own particular
ether

and during this night
while a stranger
sleeps touching
my elbow
I want to ingest my own ether
as it drifts back upwards from the sea
too finely/finally
purified
to be noticed by gravity