Foreign Airport

After reading through Foreign Airport for the first time, I definitely found it to be quite strange and “all over the place.” Most of the lines seem incoherent, moving from mules on a runway to schoolmasters offering peanuts to a bailbondsman. But underneath these seemingly bizarre images, I feel like I made my own unique interpretation of what the poem was trying to depict. Starting off, I found the first line to be an incredible use of imagery. When I read this line, I get the feeling that the voice of the poem is in a constant state of paranoia and depression. My opinion is strengthened through the use of the word “hypochondriac” and the word “moon” which creates an image in my head of darkness/gloominess. As you progress through the poem, you definitely feel a sense of diversity and tolerance/intolerance; through the image of the mule for example. Something made even more obvious in the title. Not only the word foreign but the word airport; when you think of airports you think of traveling or progressing somewhere-possibly the progression to eliminate racial oppression. I feel that the lines discussing the school teacher and the bailbondsman were very abstract but I feel that the purpose was to introduce the whole subject of the poem to the audience. I mean how much better can you do to introduce the idea of diversity through two examples who are true polar opposites. And then I found the lines following that to be the most important in the whole poem. Although the characters are very different they found that they shared a lot of similarities, (they lived in the same town, were both Gemini’s, etc.) which in my opinion did an incredible job of telling the reader to be tolerant of others and although people may look/act different than you we are all the same and deserve to be treated so. The poem then takes a sharp turn to show that although this would be a sound way to live in society; nothing ever changes. Some examples to support my claim include the drifting conversation and the strong sense use of permanent images near the end; such as the skeleton and the inability to age. All in all I feel that this poem has a multitude of interpretations; reading through it once again I began to interpret it as death and the afterlife so I don’t know…

---Albert Sementa