Jetlag, aka μετεμψύχωσις

Landing at night on a motherboard
glowing of neon and amber,
I’m on a leg to another flight.
Whither or why? There’s no answer.

Through the smudged glare of reading lights
I see particles pulsing below,
en route like me, in steady state,
an alternating circular flow.

Why land, if then to carry on?
Why fly, if only to fly again?
Attraction, repulsion, motion itself,
aren’t hubris or vanity, just vain.

***
Aka metempsychosis. I surprised myself with this palimpsest of aviation, electronics and reincarnation, or at least implied resistance to such. 

Vademecum

We who left, left before we knew it.
Taught to travel light, not to wander far,
we learned that lightness takes us farther.
We saw more to sight than met the eye.

Taught to travel light, not to wander far,
we changed our names then countries too.
We saw more to sight than met the eye.
(Nowhere is near, not too far to go.)

We changed our names then countries too.
Everywhere, we said? Why not everywhen?
(Nowhere is near, not too far to go.)
Now everywhere we go we want to stay.

Everywhere, we said? Why not everywhen?
We learned that lightness takes us farther.
Now everywhere we go we want to stay.
We who left, left before we knew it.

***

For the record, this is an unrhymed pantoum.