Poems

Iain Twiddy: ‘Lift’ and ‘Condensation’

Lift Might he be the only one among the 368 (excluding crew) crammed on board who thinks that this miracle, which may as well be a planet— which the leaflet says has a length of 73.86 metres, a 60.93-metre wingspan, a cruise speed of 554 mph, a maximum 299,370 kg capacity, of which 171,171 litres can be fuel, which has two massive turbofan engines hanging groaning off the wings, each packing 440 kN of thrust, which can blast from London to Tōkyō in barely 11 hours at eight miles or 1.5 Mount Everests high with a following, battering-ram, big-banging wind—…

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