Coming and Going

I 

Leaving the ground is effortless
Smoothly soaring in to the night sky,
saying goodbye to the city lights

the cars are crawling light bugs
and a ship below winks at me
towns are pin pricks of fire
smothered by a blanket of darkness

Kilometres are centimetres from where I sit,
Towns that I don’t know, and never will,
are merely small formations of pale orange light
geography is hidden by the cloak of night
but as we approach Perth, another sea greets us,
ovals are green oases sitting in the darkness

II

As we leave there is a jolt
Rising into the sun,
Over the holes in the ground
Pockmarks of salt disfigure 
the green-brown skin of the land

As we move out over the sea
Clouds drag their heavy shadows behind them
Crawling over the tiled blue surface of the bight
And then there are sands encroaching on the coast,
Their golden grains spilling onto greens and browns

As we reach home there are trees
Everywhere, parks interrupt the streets
We float over the docile carparks
And tower over terrestrial pursuits
While the ground calls us, welcoming
Somehow knowing that we are glad
and we are happy in our homecoming.