John McAuliffe

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Black Box

The world would keep happening, other planes
rising through the seabirds and cirrus,
or bumping to earth and into what goes on,
trading into days and nights he would not see,
and the horizon he says the plane rose to was not
unhappy. The capacity to do damage, be found
wanting, to bring things down on the heads
of others. Foregone, forsworn. The foghorn sun,
the air steward’s shout. Sliding. The worst,
after such knowledge, was the question
as the plane ripped into the stratosphere
about why he picked up the pen as they ascended,
writing something, almost peacefully and
on its own blazing terms, about where the day ended.

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JOHN MCAULIFFE’s books include versions of Bosnian poet Igor Klikovac, Stockholm Syndrome (Smith Doorstop, 2018), The Kabul Olympics (Gallery, 2020) and Selected Poems (Gallery 2021; Wake Forest 2022). He is Professor of Poetry at the University of Manchester and Associate Publisher at Carcanet.