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Wings of desire

Could be verse: poetry ripped from the headlines
By JAMES PARKER  |  September 5, 2007


VIDEO: James Parker reads "Wings of desire"

Lines upon reading that in-flight entertainment is exposing children to images of an increasingly violent and sexual nature

Fear not the hostile altitudes, fear not the wobbling wings,
The hissing vents, the turbulence, or any of those things.
Fear not the stewardess, my child, whose grin is white and hot.
Man was not born to flight, it’s true — but then again, so what?
I’ll drink my little can of beer, your mum will take her pill,
And should you find it hard to settle down, as children will,
This teeny-tiny TV will display, for your sedation,
Zombies with exploding heads and serial fornication.

Related: Mile-high schlub, Bounced!, Leave it to Bieber, More more >
  Topics: Lifestyle Features , Transportation, Air Travel
| More

ARTICLES BY JAMES PARKER
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  •   GETTING TO KNOW PHILIP LARKIN WITH A NEW EDITION OF HIS POEMS  |  April 26, 2012
    "A smash of glass and a rumble of boots/Electric trains and a ripped-up phonebooth/Paint-spattered walls and the cry of a tomcat/Lights going out, and a kick in the balls." These lines are not by Philip Larkin, of course — they're by Paul Weller.
  •   BLACK SABBATH ARE BACK — IN PRINT AND ON FILM  |  November 14, 2011
    The literature on Black Sabbath — already extensive — will continue to grow, as we try, try, try again to wrap our poor noggins around the irreducibly cosmic fact of this band.
  •   REDISCOVERING METALLICA WITH A NEW BIO  |  August 26, 2011
    Write the Lightning
  •   REDISCOVERING METALLICA WITH A NEW BIO  |  August 24, 2011
    That the biggest metal band in metal history should be called METALLICA — it's just so frigging metal .
  •   REMEMBERING HÜSKER DÜ WITH TWO NEW BOOKS  |  June 09, 2011
    "Readers of this book will be disappointed," declares Andrew Earles, rather sternly, in the introduction to his Hüsker Dü: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock (Voyageur Press), "if they hope to be rewarded with the gritty details of any band member's drug use."  

 See all articles by: JAMES PARKER



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