Air Travel

this world 

of sorcerers 

and tech-bros

and the devoted

their foreheads marked 

with the cross of ash

is as hot 

as the gusts 

over the forge

as hot as hell

we’ve run

through the iron 

and concrete halls

polished smooth

we’ve been barred

at the gate

by the indifferent 

and absent guardians 

to whom we are

as nothing

it is a miracle 

that they are letting us

fly away 

though first they 

take back 

all the tokens 

we were promised 

to safeguard 

our passage