From Up There

When I was 7, I flew in a plane for the first time and I created a game for myself
 Count the number of backyard pools you see you miss one, you lose
 When i turned 21, I flew to Los Angeles which was a first for me on two accounts
 My first time in LA
 And my first time losing the swimming pool game
 For the least captive audience ever
 You try and tell me what to do in the case of a water landing but what you don't understand is
 I put the frequent in flyer
 Collecting rewards
 Which really only amount to flying more
 Gazing out my rounded rectangle
 I never miss the take off
 The slow zoom as things bigger than you fade smaller and smaller until they become so distant
 That I can't even squish them between my fingers anymore
 Imagine how a bird must feel the first time it swoops down to land on the ground and thinks
 That house is much bigger than it looks
 I like it better up there
 Where you're the first to know the weather
 Suspended between timezones and atmospheres I get acquainted with the clouds
 Cheating death and gravity
 For $329 plus tax
 From up there, I see
 Where roads begin and end and I want to cheer on the cars you're almost there
 It's just around the corner
 You just can't see it yet
 From up there, I see
 Small clusters of light
 Reminding me of brain wave activity scans
 And I think
 A city is perhaps a synapse of God's brain
 Lighting up where connections are being made with the Almighty
 Which makes sense why most of the earth below is so pitch black
 With the seat belt sign turned on
 And the man in the aisle seat white knuckled on the arm rest
 I remind him that no plane has ever crashed from turbulence
 But if we had the choice, don't you think most passengers would give up before it passes
 What if, on the ground, we had no choice but to strap in and wait it out?
 How many still fathered children would there be?
 How many unsigned divorce papers?
 How many un-read suicide notes?
 How many of us would stick around if we knew that what is turbulent is inevitably harmless?
 And that, though annoying, the change fee was necessary because change never comes free
 And I'll gladly pay the price
 If it will get us where we're going faster
 But we fail to recognize that if your name's on the suitcase
 It's just gonna come around again and again until you grab it
 The turnstile of life keeps kicking back what you refuse to pick up in other words
 We all have to claim our baggage before we can move on
 From up there, I can see all that
 But from down here
 I'm lucky if I even take the time to look up and wish I could fly