It Tastes Better When it isn't Yours

The fresh converts are the worst
Chasing me all around with glossy pamphlets
Stirring up the animosity and dirt

The newest diet
The holiest religion
The shiniest car
The latest addiction

From the main road out front
I heard tires upon the gravel
Slowing
Crunching
Turning perceptibly closer

I rose from my recliner
With an urgent throw of the wooden handle
Tossing me forward at an accelerated amble

Squeaking brakes
A car door's mechanical latch
Squonking of unlubricated hinges
Once going open
Once going close
Before the death rattle thunk
Of a misaligned door pin finding home

Our footsteps aligned like fate
That unseen boogey man's and mine
Him fast approaching my front door
Me decreasing the distance to the back

Two hands approach two doors
His to knock
Mine to throw the right angled finangle

Timed to the microsecond
He knocks as I open the catch
Accompanied by a faint voice
"Do you have a few moments to spare for the words of our savior Jesus Christ?"
My door swings open silently and I step outside
He knocks again as I close the door quickly

Nobody the wiser as I make my way back to my house next door
Crunching in the unraked from last fall's carpet of brown oak leaves
That I spend my afternoons while the neighbor is away
Upon the antique green rough cloth-covered lazy boy
Watching his HBO in his living room

Cruising The Details

Propellers blur with the slurring of a roar
Individual beats too fast to ever count
The WAP of a propeller blade as it butter churns the air
The small explosion in each of the air cooled cylinders

Once lined up and rolling
A dirty grey streak upon the concrete strip
Calloused hands holding us down upon the earth
Until the tires are rolling as fast as they ever dare
With the fear of cord separation in their black rubber eyes

Control arm torques upon flight control
Pushing down upon weighted end
Fabric covered trailing edge soars upwards
Applying pressure downwards
An action-reaction in action

The nose soars upwards at an alarming rate
As the waterline tilts accordingly
Spilling all of its weight and balance secrets
Upon the altar of the fulcrum

Thrust and lift carry ever upward always forward
Are all the lights green?
No
Are all the important ones green at least?
Yes
Ok, let's go

They say that cargo doesn't care
In the way and manner of its handling
But those who say such things
Haven't been trapped in a tube with glittering wings

With all the monkeys in their crates being resigned to their fates
Sliding backwards like the unsecured cargo that they are
Approaching the aft pressure bulkhead at a terrifying pace
Saved only by a sharp downward pitch
Accompanied by unsettling weightlessness

Ladies and gentlemen
We have reached our cruising altitude