Overencouraged: Odes to AFV III

For a nice woman, a kind woman
bourne to Jamaica by Travelocity
All to obliterate
the dying air of Interstates
And she here looks East where a
powerful motorboat idles just off the dock

A humble woman, an unassuming woman
with a hidden dash of courage
O back home it is a margarita courage
The invariable Thursdays at Chi-Chis
with an extra shot for only $2 more
O she is free with her
Raw analysis of Desparate Housewives
And what the boss must look like naked

And her husband tapes her and she smiles
as she is stuffed,
into a harness at capacity,
or perhaps just beyond
a harness for a parachute -
a nylon shorthand for ecstatic freedom
stuffed and strapped and padded and kneaded
by a trim, bemused young native man
Who did not actually signal

A sweet woman, a plump woman,
A rather fat woman
Notices not that the line is thin and worn
Nor that the boat is now abruptly flying
Her husband is smiling at her still, Her eyes shine
New experience
Is at the end of that line, which tightens fast
All humiliations
have faded,
have faded,
have faded

Her smile is yanked from the frame.
The splash is heard in Duluth.