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      September 12, 2024Safety FeaturesEric Kocher

      Among clouds, I have an empty plastic cup
      But I’m afraid where we are going,
       
      The Pacific Northwest,
      The Cascadia Subduction Zone,
       
      Will be struck by a massive and violent
      Earthquake that erases everything west
       
      Of I-5, that my wife and I
      Will be tragically killed by a tsunami
       
      While on a whale-watching tour,
      Clumsy in the romantic wonder
       
      Of nature, and that our daughter
      Will have to learn what that means
       
      In age-appropriate chunks as she gets older,
      First that we are gone, then how,
       
      That we were people who were clumsy
      In our romantic wonder of nature,
       
      And so on like that until I am breathing
      All weird and panicking up here,
       
      Trying to remind myself that none of this
      Is an appropriate disposition
       
      For someone going on vacation. At least
      I can be grateful that we all know what to do
       
      In the event of a water landing.
      We know about the safety features,
       
      Of this particular aircraft,
      Even as I feel my feet swelling in the atmosphere.
       
      I untie my shoes and press the button overhead.
      I’ll get another Dewar’s; I’ll try this again.

      from Sky Mall

      Eric Kocher

      “A little over ten years ago, my friend Mark made a joke. He said that I should try to be the first person to publish a poem in Sky Mall Magazine. There was something about shopping for the most inane, kitschy stuff on the planet while flying 30,000 feet above it, just to avoid a moment of boredom, that seemed to be the antithesis of poetry. The words “Sky Mall” got stuck in my head—lodged there. This is almost always how poems happen for me. Language itself seems to be in the way just long enough to build tension before it can open into a space that pulls me forward. These poems finally arrived while I was traveling, first alone, and then the following year with my wife, as a new parent in that hazy dream of the post-pandemic. Writing them felt like going on a shopping spree, of sorts, so I tried to let myself say yes to everything.”

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