A friend is slogging her way home
from Buenos Aires, thirteen air hours
topping off an arduous trip:
flights around Chile and Argentina,
bus rides along sharp Andean ridges,
four days on a boat in rough Patagonian seas.
That doesn’t take into account
the mountain-miles hiked
with aching joints
where her real knees used to be.
So now she’s heading for Atlanta,
hoping their record snow has stopped,
the power’s back on. Wishing
she didn’t have a seven-hour layover.
Wishing she was a long-flying bird.
About the Author: Patricia Wellingham-Jones
Patricia Wellingham-Jones is a widely published former psychology researcher and writer/editor. She has a special interest in healing writing, with poems recently in The Widow’s Handbook (Kent State University Press). Chapbooks include Don’t Turn Away: poems about breast cancer, End-Cycle: poems about caregiving, Apple Blossoms at Eye Level, Voices on the Land and Hormone Stew.