Today I will fly across the Pacific Ocean once again. Lately I have been doing so much flying, I am positively (or should I say negatively) beginning to dislike getting on a jet plane. I get respiratory disorders; I become exhausted. I stay jet-lagged for weeks if I go east.
The last time I flew, I wrote a poem which I would like to share with you. (Incidentally, it’s just a poem; I’ve never flown – to Shanghai.)
Flying: a Protest Poem
by Biruté Mary Galdikas
Flying all the way from London to Shanghai
It seems like a big fat dream.
Window shades drawn obscure the coming dawn.
I miss the clouds but feel the sky.
Dark outside,bright inside.
The steward,trim in black,
Hands the drinks and wipes the spills.
I blink as the cabin lights begin to dim.
The movie at my seat side device begins.
It’s “Konan the Barbarian” again
Some actor from Hana via Iowa.
Can’t keep all these place names straight.
Suddenly I can’t breathe; oxygen in plane too low.
I gasp in panic and defeat.
The steward appears.
Hands me a drink and wipes my spills.
But it’s not 7-Up or whiskey foaming on my lap.
It’s just guts and blood
Dripping through the cracks
Of my weary, tired flight.
Tired of flying but yet appreciate my life.
Scientist, conservationist, educator: for almost four decades Dr. Biruté Mary Galdikas has studied and worked closely with the orangutans of Indonesian Borneo in their natural habitat, and is today the world’s foremost authority on the orangutan.
11. May 2012
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