Leaving Ushuaia

Rising at the crack of dawn
Leaving Ushuaia this morning
Going back to Buenos Aires
A three-hour flight is beckoning
Flying over mountains high
And ocean deep

Cauliflower clouds down below
Like tops of mountains covered with snow
In between light-blue sky
Suggest to me down at ground level
It isn’t raining

Feeling tired I nod my head
Last night in bed I didn’t get much sleep
At all.  I’ve had a cold for a week
A crick in my neck and my left knee’s weak
Following a stumble down stone steps
In my hotel bedroom

What the heck I’m not moaning

From time to time the aircraft shakes
And a churning in my stomach makes
Me think of earthquakes for some reason
But overall the shaking’s not quite half
As bad as on other flights I’ve had

I recall the day thirty years ago when I
First flew into Belfast. A stormy day. 
Clouds a thick black-grey and the rain
Lashed down all the way from take-off
To landing. Gill Air’s plane jumped up and
Down. It was a miracle it didn’t hit the
Ground or end up in the sea when landing

What the hell I survived to tell the story.

But as I write this aircraft’s flight seems
Markedly much smoother now and
Cauliflower clouds down below like
Mountain ranges covered with snow
In between the light-blue sky
Suggest to me down at ground level
It isn’t raining

Reason is it’s the height of the summer season

And looking through the window I see a
Long road stretching far into the distance 
And it’s clear that now the aircraft’s flying
Overland. Looking down again I realize
It’s the coastline looking up at me and
The patchwork fields that I also see
Stretch for many miles into the distance

In all directions.

Then lots of lakes and river courses
A myriad of roads in all directions
Cauliflower clouds much clumpier now
Fields of green and brown with a
Multitude of shades in between

The aircraft suddenly slows right down
And I see a tablecloth of townships
Stretching star-like in all directions
Before completing its descent down