Wednesday, June 5, 2024: Matt McGee's "Waiting for Take Off"

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Matt McGee writes in the Los Angeles area. In 2023, his work appeared in Spectrum, Gnashing Teeth, and The NonBinary Review. When not typing, he drives around in rented car and plays goalie in local hockey leagues.


Yeah, sitting in the airport terminal waiting on the flight to San Francisco, where I’ll attend a poetry reading of some bigger names, and hopefully hand out my budding literary magazine. On my left is a man about fifteen years or so older than me, yapping on his cell phone to someone in His office, “I’m sure whatever expenditure you’re asking about I probably approved so just go ahead and do it, it’s fine.”

Across the aisle is a woman maybe five years younger than me who’s chatting away with someone in her office. “Yeah, I met with four different people today and what I found out is that they sell absolutely nothing, produce nothing and need nothing. So, remind me again why I came?”

To these people, I’m a child. I’m dotting up the California coast, hoping to bend a few ears for at least a few minutes to make them understand why I do what I do. Minutes they do not have.

Even then, they probably don’t care. Some might even despise my kind. The best I can hope for is that, somewhere deep down inside is a poet they buried long ago. Often, and in times of trouble, the hard exterior melts and they look to me for a rope to pull them from their Arthur Miller quagmire.

And I will.

Because that’s my business.


© 2024 Matt McGee

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