Plane Food, a poem

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Please keep your seat belt fastened while you are seated
and pay attention to the preflight briefing.
we know this is a difficult time.

Do not pretend peeling back the foil to rising steam excites you,
and do not expect your butter and bread roll to take you back
to hot-sun bare-foot summers and remember,
you’ve already seen all of the movies we have on offer.
We know this is a difficult time.

In fact, this is such a difficult time,
we are emptying out the bar free of charge,
ma’am would you prefer five mini bottles of the white,
or another cry in the bathroom?

Have you noticed the aisle voices
filling stifled air?
You take your second bite feeling nothing
but the gulls under wing
and coyotes at your tail.

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Meg Edwards is a third year student at the University of Edinburgh studying English Literature and History.