this palimpsest
on which was written
I love you farewell come home
soon
then effaced, quite modestly for
have a great trip write me
don’t forget me
slate cleaned but somehow indented by
I can’t believe don’t even think
just leave already
jet to jet physics be damned
safety scanning bodies screened
the only danger, real
and unreal all the same,
is that you will go
and never come back
all erased by the streak of black
a flock of birds in tarmac grey sky
dense then sparse, ink then dust
monochrome morning
eleanor j jackson 