The Airplane Pillow – TCK poetry

The Airplane Pillow

I’ve been sleeping on an airplane pillow all this while
drowned in a white pillowcase
folded over and set at the top of my mat
and the impermanency has etched itself
over top of every memory I have here
I always knew I wasn’t meant to stay

But somehow that airplane pillow
folded over and over itself until it was
small enough to fit in my pocket, to go back
the same way it arrived; and all my hopes
got tiny too, squished and soft and transportable
like maybe that could make up for the rest

But it didn’t
and I left
everything
hopes and pillows
and all the rest
small behind me

~ Elizabeth Hemp

Click to see another poem by Elizabeth Hemp

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