So now it was my turn to pick.

————

Last week we went to Chandler Airport

to find the Flight-line Café,

a restaurant in the old Terminal building.

Paul didn’t want to go in,

the sign said Chinese Food.

He had Chinese take-out the night before.

So now it was my turn to pick,

I chose the Flight-line Café this week, 510 West Kearney Boulevard.

We marveled at the many lovely homes

on Hawes Avenue, when we had to turn off

Kearney Boulevard, blocked & detoured

for road construction ahead, on the way

to the general aviation city airport.

I asked Paul if he knew that Charles Lindberg

& wife landed at the Chandler air-field

in 1930, 20,000 people turned out to greet them.

Of course not, he didn’t know.

At the airport, we found parking in front,

so it was easier for Paul on his walker.

up the handicapped ramp to the door,

we went into the building through the front,

to an empty lobby, then turned left

into the aviation-themed restaurant.

A mock-airplane made of aluminum

beer cans hung from the ceiling,

pictures of airplanes on all the walls.

In 1923, the World’s Greatest Flying Circus,

air-races, parachute jumps, & wing-walking,

performed here to raise money to apply oil

to the dirt runway in Chandler’s corn field.

Built in 1936, the Terminal building,

where passengers of commercial airlines,

prior to the advent of World War II,

boarded their flights to elsewhere.

Built in Art Deco style: Streamline Moderna,

epitomizing the modern machine era:

Motion through the reduction of friction,

corners rounded & streamlined,

the old control tower on the second-floor

overlooking the WPA paved runway,

four thousand feet long, built in 1938.

When in 1947, for-profit airlines announced

the airfield was too small for commercial flights

and pulled out for Hammer Field, across town.

The hostess seated us promptly near the door.

All the window tables overlooking the runway

the prime seats & location in this place,

were occupied by seemingly happy diners.

Paul ordered a bacon cheeseburger, with french fries.

I had a regular cheeseburger with potato salad.

We argued. I proposed that the two poems

by Henri Coulette, who taught poetry writing

at Los Angeles City College in the ‘50’s & 60’s,

referred to a character named Omar,

was an intentional reference to his student,

our late mutual friend, Luis Omar Salinas,

when he was a shoe salesman in East L.A.

by day, & a Chicano street poet by night.

Paul said it was merely coincidence.

I said Omar’s romantic passion transcended all text.

& I had to tell Paul to wipe his beard,

ketchup & mustard where running down.

I think he appreciated that someone,

even if it was me, cared about how he looked.

By Stephen Barile

From: United States