With My Father in the Airforce

by Mark Rhoads

Engines roaring airmen in fatigues

at attention at the ladders pilots striding

forward chocks under the wheels still

but with the ropes in the hand of some

general who's ordered the squadron

into the heavens over some new place

Movers at the door ready to pack

everything right down to the rubbish

at the back of the kitchen drawers

all neatly boxed taped blanket-

wrapped stacked in the van

Me in the back seat of the Chevy

eyes windowsill high the neighborhood

vanishing the children in my school

quietly reading at their desks