Literature Only

In my seat-back on an airplane
I find a pocket labeled
– Literature Only –
Yet all I find inside the pocket
is an Entertainment Guide
and a Beverage Menu folder

That doesn’t look like literature to me
If I were tasked with filling such a pocket
I would stock it with the likes of
Dickinson and Morrison
Kingsolver and Baldwin
maybe a Canterbury Tale or two

I suppose one could see
if one was open to such a notion
that phrases such as
“Deep Eddy Ruby Red”
and “12th of Never Ale”,
“all for free,” “on demand,”
“connected in the clouds”
could be seen as literature
instead of marketing copy

I’m inclined however
to scribble out a poem
on the back of my drink napkin
to leave in the pocket
for a subsequent passenger
who may want more
than brand names and prices
and advertising schemes
as the basis of their
Only Literature

For the actual poem that was drafted on the napkin see the next post, Beverage and Entertainment: A Found Poem.

Photo taken on a recent night flight home from the west coast

 

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