Shin Yu Pai
The Pilot
you move through space
in three dimensions
only in flight
young,
a fascination starts
with the push off
the third story of a neighbor's roof
and the desire to explore
what tooth and hip remember
more clearly than a father tells it
falling
crack of bone
disruptions to water
in inner
the ear
how the body compensates
for fractures
by honing
situational awareness
based on
career vocation
you have perfect eyesight
at night
low level cargo flights
over the Persian sea
the belt of Orion
in the Northern hemisphere
or
a belt of military ships
orthogonal lines recede into a space
where boats to you are as stars
Shin Yu Pai is a graduate of the MFA Writing Program at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago. She has published poems, translations, and photos in
several small press journals and her chapbook of Chinese translations "Ten
Thousand Miles of Mountains and Rivers" is available through Third Ear Books.
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