Day 1 - Get Going Already!

It was hot

Not like frying pan in the desert hot
But not comfortable just the same

My best friend and I were drinking beer
In a vain effort to cool off
Ice sliding off golden scripted cans
Of mass produced swill
Vapor rising lazily up from the metal
Promising cold
Delivering naught
But hot beer and dead skunk

I felt a pressure on my chest
And my arms felt leaden
As my buddy scoffed at my latest decision

"I don't know, dude
Twenty days is a long ass time to be gone every month
If nobody else tries to tap your old lady
I just might!"

He drunkenly laughed at that
And I did too

Although I wasn't too worried about him
The general idea had crossed my mind as well
And I was feeling some misgivings about it all

But fuck it
More beer would probably fix it

"Toss me another 'Stone, eh?"

My wish granted
The mostly white can started arcing towards me
Drops of condensation shedding from it
Like a just launched rocket on a cold morning
Spinning on its long axis as it came
That gold-lettered brand label flashed into view
Then out
Then in

Old Gravestone Light
The beer that won no awards ever
With a silver slab grave marker logo
Stating unironically
"Your Name Here"

You'd think nobody would buy a beer with such a dark sense of humor
But here we were
Drinking up in the back of my pickup truck

The can passed through my fumbling fingers
To land with a meaty splat upon my chest

Upon contact
My eyes snapped open
And my head started to hurt
Hand grabbing center torso
Finding instead of a cold beer
A fabulously smelly shoe

This leather sheathe
Held an equally alarming foot
All attached to what surely
Was an appropriately horrid person
Shades of Schultz's Pigpen
But weighing 300 pounds
Topped by a mop top of greasy brown hair
And holding a jagged cinder block above his head

Small sharp stones opined their anger to my back
Offended at being laid upon

My left arm wet in a puddle of what probably isn't completely water
Not responding to my brain's call to defense

I can't tell what language I'm being swore at in
As the man swung the chunk of concrete down at me

My head tried to do a fancy zig zag move to get away
Only causing my overly starched once-white collar to chafe the skin

Two more thoughts have time to cross my mind:

The cold rain feels delightful upon my bare legs

I wonder where I left my pants

747 Sunset

I never saw a sunset
Until I was above the clouds
Orange light bathing cotton candy
Spread out upon endless horizons

Mesmerized through the cockpit windows
Until waves of color rippled across

A slow motion ocean of red
Swallowing the orange of endless foam

A magician's velvet cape of purple
Sweepingly chasing the red

An invisible squid's ink of black
Squirting all the soft landscape soon after

Dyeing the evening scene
Setting the stage for the stars
To form their living planetarium overhead
Teaching a new lesson each and every night

Steam gauges glow a faint yellow
Electronics thrum their steady hum
And the wings creak in steady time
To the constant push of four thundrous engines

Pushing us from time zone to time zone
Until clocks become relative to our speed
With four hours to go
Then three
Two
Diving down through those clouds
With only an hour left

Coastal lights in sight
Feet dry
Stars gone
Dead dirty earth beckoning us back
From our flight amongst the heavens

A shudder and a shake
As the gear doors open
Buffeting the airframe
Green lights shine
Showing down and locked
ILS lights pulse a living light road

Across the threshold
20 feet
15 feet
10 feet
5 feet
Eighteen rubber chuffs

"Home at last
Home at last"

Is a lie I cry out
As I have left my heart
Up in that starry sky above