Take Nothing with You

you are not prepared to leave behind,

said the man behind the glass window

I gave him my money and took my ticket,

not understanding what he meant.

Eventually, we lose it all,

every charger cable

every airport bookstore read

every water bottle and travel mug,

even laptops left in Omaha,

never to be seen again.

He gestured to the store

that specialized in lost and abandoned items,

they used to get it all

now half of everything

gets blown to smithereens.

I sat in the padded arm chair,

one of a dozen in a row,

a hundred in the space,

and one of thousands in the concourse

and wondered how much I might lose this time

and whether the plane was a 737 max

or just an airbus, number unknown.