Di Vinci Airport, Roma July 1996

Sitting in a leather seat,
It is two in the morning
The television is blaring
Entertaining those who wait.

The Carbinieri have already checked passports
Perhaps there is a problem
Perhaps this is normal procedure.
The hour bends the head
And I sleep amidst the luggage
My belongings holding me
Like the Arab women, to my left
With two small sons.

Awakened by music
The television has Leonard Bernstein
Giving a lecture in a tight black suit,
Aaron Copeland is conducting, Appalachian Spring,
Both men are now dead.
In Rome, they are still on the television.

poem by K. Carlton Johnson
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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