More Rare Than You May Think.

Opportunity Air

I booked a one-way ticket on Opportunity Air.

From where I’d be going, I wouldn’t want to return.

I rolled my luggage into the airport

Passed through a body scanner

Then bought myself a drink.

 I waited at the gate.

The monitor said my flight was delayed.

I watched other passengers board planes

But they weren’t flying Opportunity Air.

I was eager to get to my destination.

I stared at my crumpled boarding pass.

I’d pulled it from my pocket a dozen times

Making sure I had the right flight number.

It’d been hours, yet the monitor hadn’t changed.

When I asked if the flight had been cancelled,

I was informed that the plane would arrive any minute.

However, hours passed

And then days

And then weeks.

My tattered boarding pass became barely legible.

Yet, I was eager to get to my destination, so I waited

Planes landed and planes took off, but never my plane.

I thought of silly little rhymes to pass the time.

“I’ve booked a one-way ticket on Opportunity Air

But the plane never comes, and I’m going nowhere.”

I waited at the gate until I was at the brink of insanity.

Until suddenly I realized, I wasn’t on the cusp of insanity—

I had been insane all along.

At last I’d reached mental clarity.

I gathered my belongings

Took a taxi to the bus station

Then boarded a bus home on Mediocrity Trailways.