tropical hell

Tahiti island paradise
that was the project
checked on calendars
for the last six months
three hundred Hawaiian shirts
bedecked the tarmac
Daiquiris flowed with chicken Teriyaki
plump mangoes were desert
at thirty-thousand feet
turbulent bumps
                   severe turbulence
                             mayday
                                       crash


the sand was warm and white
under the blazing sun
but there were less rejoicing
than to be mourned
leaving the wreckage nowhere
in the middle of the Pacific
no indigenous inhabitants
no GPS satellite tracked this desert isolation
no MacDonald's, no Jack Daniel’s
only fifty-three desperate men
fighting to survive
in a tropical holiday hell



tropical hell
[2007.10.3...a]