{"id":9119,"date":"2022-06-06T22:42:21","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T22:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=9119"},"modified":"2022-07-15T17:15:03","modified_gmt":"2022-07-15T17:15:03","slug":"the-time-to-fly-is-nigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/?p=9119","title":{"rendered":"THE TIME TO FLY IS NIGH"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Wing<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After years of pandemic isolation, my son and I are flying off\u00a0 to Winnipeg in a few weeks as part of my book launch tour and to visit friends and family. It should be interesting to see what air travel has come to. I inherited a love of aviation from my step-father, a former member of the RCAF. Forthwith one of my numerous flight-themed poems.<\/p>\n

FLYING DREAMS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not much to do in a small town.
\nWe\u2019d skip school, drive to Richmond,
\nhang out in the airport lounge,
\nswig Heinekens and watch
\njumbo jets land and depart,
\nrarely carded in those days,
\nno one surprised if you drank alcohol
\nat age fourteen. It was expected,
\nlike shedding one\u2019s virginity.<\/p>\n

My mother never flew in her life,
\nterrified the first time I took off
\nin a 10-seat Otter north to Gilford Island
\nfor a summer job of tree-planting,
\nhapless recruits seated on the floor,
\nengine cacophony so loud I nearly puked.
\nI would have been mortified.
\nToo young to be a hippie,
\nI lasted four days,
\nrelieved to escape the stench
\nof fried tofu and patchouli.<\/p>\n

My next flight was south,
\nto Los Angeles to join fellow aspiring
\nrock stars Randy, Brad and Karla,
\nshare a bill with PIL
\nat the Olympic Auditorium,
\ngoing so resoundingly
\nI didn\u2019t return for twelve years,
\npummeled but resigned
\nto my tantalizingly close
\nto-the-brass ring but never-was status.<\/p>\n

Surveying the girl
\nwith the Please Kitty<\/em> backpack,
\nfevered skin crazed with crimson,
\nI knew it was to be my last excursion
\nfor a while, for as long as it takes
\nfor everyone to recover
\nour dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              After years of pandemic isolation, my son and I are flying off\u00a0 to Winnipeg in a few weeks as part of my book launch tour and to visit friends and family. It should be interesting to see what air travel has come to. I inherited a love of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,12],"tags":[460,236,461],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9119"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9119"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9563,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9119\/revisions\/9563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/heatherhaley.com\/hh2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}