No Equivalent

There is no equivalent to waiting in in airport to connect with your next flight.  Even in paradise, as I am here in Hawaii, trying to catch hopscotching flights across the islands, waiting at the boarding gate makes time thick and sluggish.  The people surrounding are beautiful and not.  Babies cry near and far.  The windows rattle as jets throttle to clear the tarmac.  Someone is blocking another person’s path.  Another person has opened their carry-on and spilled trinkets and clinkets and whunkets across the tile floor.  Cell phone conversations.  Texting.  Newspapers.

I can deal with the pretty girls and the ocean view.

And my final destination.

NOTE: Written at gate 6, Lihue Airport.

--Mitchell Hegman