Signs Of Life

I have watched from the ground the
C-5s landing at Travis. God, how they hang,
hang in the air, like kites. Big as tankers,
weighing tons, how could they move
so slowly and not fall out of the sky?

Flip the picture: those lights, how much
I appreciate their slowness, their steadiness,
as we drop from the dark. Final approach,
with those falls, those bumps and dips
through cloud cover that numb confidence.

As palms bead up and pulses question
faith, we break down and through, and there
they come, anonymous, creeping along
the interstate in those blessed straight lines
of the will, that mean so much from here.