I hope you make your flight

From my Hometown Poems

Photo Suzanna de Baca

Let me get that for you
The stranger says
And opens the heavy door
Of the convenience store
As the snow falls around us.

Here I got this for you
My husband says
Handing me a steaming cup of coffee
From the drive-through kiosk across town
The warm aroma fills the room.

There’s bundt cake in the kitchen 
My colleague says
The new guy brought it
And look, he put orange slices around it
Isn’t that pretty.

I’m about to miss my connection
The woman says, panic in her voice
She has a tight hold on her daughter, 
A tiny thing with puffy pigtails and a pink backpack
Most of us shift slightly and
Gesture for her and her child 
To move ahead in the long line.

I see her again 
On the other side of security 
She grabs her handbag
From the conveyor belt 
But loses her grasp and it falls
All the contents spilling out 
A river of coins and combs a child’s hair bow
Pens and pills and an inhaler.
I bend and start scooping 
A package of cough drops 
A name badge that says Renee 
A small book of Daily Inspirations.
Her little girl looks on
Clutching the straps of her pink backpack
Will we make it mama she says.
We’re crouching on the floor, 
Together on our knees
The woman looks me in the eye  
As I hand her a set of keys
Yes, baby, she says, 
We can make it if we hurry.

There is a sacredness in 
small kindnesses.
No need to explain why
Or make statements
About joy or grief or the sadness we may be feeling
What we are rushing to or from
Or even to introduce ourselves.
We are simply here together 
When we open doors 
Or shift in line
When we look at each other straight on.
We are a hive, a tribe, bonded somehow
When we make even fleeting gestures
That say I see you.
When we say
I hope you make your flight.

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Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Columnists 

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Nik Heftman, The Seven Times, Iowa and California

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politic Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Macy Spensley, The Creative Midwesterner, Davenport/Des Moines

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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