Best Traveleve Poems
THE LONGEST DAY
It’s an astronomical fact little-known
That New Year’s Eve nineteen ninety one
Was the longest the record will show.
The sun set in the west at Heathrow
As our plane to Canada took off, filled with zest.
The plane’s speed built up and sun rose again in the west
And it hovered above the horizon – did not deign
To dip till Edmonton, when it set again.
Hogmanay Eve 34 hours long: bliss for a Scotsman.
Over Iceland some guy in a kilt began
To stride the aisles playing a bagpipe low.
High over Greenland the malt began to flow
Freely from the baggage racks in the plane:
The racks are high, the Scots are higher again.
Dinner over Baffin Bay is a formality:
A slight slowing in the rate of alcohol hospitality.
The Italians wake up over Ungava -
It might just as well be Java -
And begin munching their salamis rather than
Have them confiscated by the customs man.
Bagpipes seem to gain in volume
Eight miles up, over Uranium City’s gloom;
And at last, as the speed drops
And the sun sinks behind the Rockies’ tops,
The “Highland Laddie” falls asleep,
And so does his bagpipe. Not a peep.
Plane is filled with blissful silence
As Canadian Hogmanay makes its entrance.