FLIGHT 26, A SONGLINE

FLIGHT 26: A SONGLINE

What is description?

I guess this is a movie about a chain-link fence. jb

NOTES ON FLIGHT 26 SUNDAY MORNING

              --for Carol Folsom-Hill

You can't see the number of chains

and links around the detainees

do you hear Joan singing to St. Augustine

but the chains circle the waist

and hands and feet both shackled

you can see this in my friend's photos

who is out here everyday

on every corner he has the good lens

and fuzzes out the faces of the men

our women chanting through tears

No estan solo, No estan solo

You are not alone the other song

and the first to come up for me

was Arlo's that son of the father

who would be first in my garden

this morning, Woody, here

with Bob of any age old standards

included Good morning America

How are you this being Sunday

Don't you know that I'm your Native Son

Richard Right too don't you know

My friend's photos blind-siding me

this was Flight 26 out of Yakima

78 detainees African Asian chained

the links so many links links

a new word old word in our time

all the links coming down from

power tops not mountains

men descending steps into

one of the many hells of america

Sunday morning coming down

Kris Kristofferson you won't

see those chain links in my movie

but links are everywhere from

behind the fence part of the fence

fence itself an urban word

from back in the day late fifties

maybe my movie though

bad as it is has my friend's narration

telling you what's going on

I'm not knocking my movie

man but when my friend talked

telling me my breathing

went haywire and the camera

sometimes it went to the sky

sometimes just cockeyed

as I got caught up in the listening

of her voice I was standing

behind her camera against

her back between her shoulder

blades there's this one final

image Wallace Stevens'

indictment of Christianity

ok it's not that I'm going too

far, statement of fact but

he does call it Sunday Morning

this being Sunday morning

and all those voters in pews me here

late coffee and oranges

complacency itself among

complacencies watermelon sweet

that plane not this train this train

the boss singing this train

but that plane that plane

plane 26 it's home it's labor day

I wanted to edit this movie down

and I wanted to make it longer too

wanted to walk every man down

the steps even though I know

it's too much to ask but the thing

is this, listener, it's not a chant

it's prayer each one addressed

to that man walking those steps

right now see that's what it is

it's each one personal to each one

and that's why it is like it is

this is not the nightly news no

Aretha, Aretha, this is about

Aretha, chain chain chain

a songline a songline

Jim Bodeen

1 September 2019