"The shadows, under the tower, in the most brilliant sun will get us nowhere too." -John Berryman, from The Dream Songs

Water Buffalo

As the plane reached it’s cruising altitude, I sat back in my seat, trying not to brush my arm against the person next to me. The person next to me kept glancing over towards me. I noticed this as I kept glancing over towards him. Hey there, my name is Carl the person said. I pretended not to notice and looked out the window. We were heading straight for a wall of cloud. Carl’s the name, how’s it going the person said, lightly tugging at my sleeve. I reached into my backpack and pulled out a magazine about cars. Oh, so I see you like cars the person said. I put that magazine away, and pulled out a magazine about current events. Ah, that revolution is quite terrible; so many lost lives. We entered the wall of cloud with a bit of turbulence, but quickly leveled off. I was sitting by the wing, but I couldn’t see the wing anymore. Carl next to me kept speaking at me, but his words were getting softer and softer. I’m from Albuquerque, my wife’s name is Lynette, we have some dogs, I’m a fence salesman, this trip is business for me, biggest sale of… until I couldn’t hear him anymore. I couldn’t hear the whir of the plane anymore. I looked over towards Carl, but he was slowly fading away. Everything around me was going white like cloud, until there was nothing but whiteness, and complete silence. Here, a shadow came and sat next to me. We talked about current events. We talked about the revolution. We were sitting, but we were upside down, or that’s how my head felt. I missed Carl.