As though they’re Values

I’m hearing a single-prop plane passing
overhead, as the morning progresses
towards both nine and work. I am not claimed
by the need to travel to work: I can sit
in my study, settle down with poem
and pen, and revise as needed,
before firing up the computer,
turning on the printer, and saving my draft.

Another single-prop plane is passing overhead,
less than five minutes on, gone
in a species of diminuendo;
I think on how the computer
does not recognise “there’s”
but recognises “diminuendo”.

Phillip A. Ellis is a freelance critic, poet and scholar. His chapbooks, The Flayed Man and Symptoms Positive and Negative, are available. He is the editor of Melaleuca.