Planes Over Jersey

  

Planes Over Jersey

 

a zeppelin crashed on my birthday

years before I was born

disaster in a small home state

 

my parents chose to live

where woods and sky met with hope

of healing a grandmother

with troubled mind

loose tongue 

broken heart

 

this was our tragedy

what would the neighbors say

when the refrain of swear words, 

shouted in German, 

was heard above the trees 

and singing birds

 ~~~~

grandmother eventually required a 

two-month stay at the state hospital

near the old Air Force base

where the big crash happened

where planes still take off

fly over open minds and countryside

cover your ears

hold the pain

silence the whirring din