Manic Episode on a Spirit Airline Flight
BIO
Lisandra Pérez (they/she) is a Mexican-immigrant queer poet living in Marquette, MI where they read for Passages North. Their work has been published in Heavy Feather Review, The Quaker & elsewhere. In the Upper Peninsula, they are working alongside other artists and writers to create Pato Poesía, a small arts collective. Lisandra is interested in dismantling systems of oppression through writing. They wear crocs often and enjoy the pastime of vacuuming. Find them on twitter @perezlisandra_.
Baby cooing mom crying gentlemen asking
about two whiskeys for me
We remind you
mom is screaming baby is sleeping my tumor
replaced my migraine- my breast this is a non-smoking flight
Howdy says the wing Howdy says I
I am thirty-two thousand
feet above ground I am mama I am baby Gentlemen I am
next to the emergency exit Twenty-two minutes Can I jump
out
They don’t laugh Wake up change my diaper
Neither do I
Light flurries in Chicago They dropped and
I counted
Forty-one
thousand.
How to be Happy
Consider this: buy a straw hat (maybe
two), toss a bag over your shoulder,
and walk west where dusk settles on
mountains that become line drawings.
Move to Montana where sweat beams
multiply as hands massage tomato
seeds into the dirt. Gently push the
hair from your face. Consider
a ponytail and walk west where dusk
settles between mountainous spaces.
Charm the horses with your mundane
banter and sing! Out of tune. Knee
deep in dirt, gently push the hair from
your face. Consider a change
and step out of your boots; you’re
home. Open your own sweet tea shop.
Name it Yours and charm the horses with
stories of Chicago. Knead
bread for the first time and read El Alquimista. Accept that happiness
comes in moments. Step into your boots;
start again! Walk to Yours before
day breaks. Appreciate the crickets’
new song. Consider seeing them live.
Let momma know you’re not coming back
unless west winds stop soothing
you. Walk to Montana where sweat beams
glide onto the tomatoes. Name
all the strays and let the horses charm
you. Learn that happiness is the consideration
of a straw hat (maybe two), a bag over
your shoulder, and Montana in the distance.
