Page One
Before the book opens, the plotting
is yours. The fiction is only you.
When the airplane lifts into the sun,
you are still on page one. But then,
you are rewritten, recrafted,
seized by a foreign language,
the susurrus of other voices.
The flyer becomes the flight.
A fly garnishes the wall.
You turn the page and climb
as the atmosphere consumes you.
The sun is peach on your skyward
cheek. This is how you fly into
the clouds of your unbecoming
where you have no given name.
Copyright Credit: Jonathan Wells, "Page One" from Debris. Copyright © 2021 by Jonathan Wells. Reprinted by permission of Four Way Books, www.fourwaybooks.com.
Source: Debris (Four Way Books, 2021)