The boy fell out of the plane and he was still alive

The boy fell out of the plane and he was still alive
I am not the boy who fell out of the plane
I’m not the man flying in to London in the long dark of the wheel bay
    Falling out of the plane as it descends
    Shattered on the farmer’s barley field
 
But the world seems to constantly fall away beneath me when I am not watching
With gravity
The boys who fall out of planes 
    Just want love
    Must die before falling
I can’t imagine it though it feels like every day the earth
 
Trips and leaves me 
 
Hanging 
 
 

This poem is a draft. It’s after an accidental photograph of a young boy falling out of the wheel well of a plane taking off in Australia. I’ll have to find the link, and update the page here when I find it.

Update: Link to an article in New Zealand Herald: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12247441. The boy’s name was Keith Sapsford, and he was trying to travel to Tokyo. He just really wanted to see it.

The article also talks about the tragic deaths of immigrants from Africa to the UK.

There is also a pretty regular occurrence of people (mostly young men) trying to immigrate to the UK in the same manner. They often die in flight, and fall out of the wheel well when the plane drops the gear to land.

Desperation.

I think we’re all feeling it these days, but probably not to the extent these people feel it, to climb into the wheel bay of an airplane to get themselves to a better situation. How terrifying once you realize there is no turning back. That you will probably die.