Still Seeking Home
When I was a child, my brother a few years older,
he made a pretend airplane with wings
(carboard affixed to canoe, dashboard made of TV dinner trays)
In our backyard in Sparta, New Jersey, on Springbrook Trail.
We wanted to fly
sitting in that contraption.
The family disease drove us outside,
drove him to shortchange many aspirations,
drove me into spins both real and metaphorical.
Over decades, we rescued, lied, covered up
for each other and our parents, left havoc.
Amidst the wreckage, a few of us recovered.
Today I fly for real.
Still seeking home.
……
This poem is from the book Ground Effect After Spin Recovery by Betsy Lynch (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/ground-effect-after-spin-recovery-by-betsy-lynch/
Betsy is pilot, poet, teacher and explorer, having raised a family while pursuing a career. Facing the “Impossible”, inevitable spins of life, viewed as metaphor following a literal, character-building, aerodynamic spin in flight over Tampa Bay, she acknowledges in this small collection the treasure of her deceased brother, her own sole survivor status from her family of origin, and the search for the “Ground Effect” of home, a universal need. Her brother was the one who “knew her from when she was born”, accepting her anyway. But the real journey is accepting oneself, treasuring fellow travelers’ gifts, and finding home, like the cushion of molecules between Earth and airplane, wherever one lands, whatever the winds.
The Paddock Review 