NOT UNDER THE FLIGHT PATH
An Ode to Stansted Complaints Department
by Marilyn Darlington
It is no wonder complaints have tailed away
When on complaining we are told the fault does not lay
With the planes we saw and heard that day
They were on a trajectory 5 miles away
And did not come over us on their way
We imagined them
Every morning we are awoke
By these imaginary folk
Who pay a pittance for their flight
Quite oblivious to our plight
The fallout from the planes they ride
Washing over us like a tide
Polluting everything we grow
But really, they were not so low
We imagined them
When the only sound is the song of birds
Suddenly an horrendous noise can be heard
As it goes overhead with a tremendous roar
Sending us hurriedly to the door
It was not an aeroplane that we saw
We imagined it
And when our children scratch and tear
At eczema that isn't really there
Their little lungs each breath they fill
With nitrous dioxide – the rating here is nil
Why should this pain the young ones bear
There is no pollution in the air
It is only aeroplanes that are not there
For we can only stand and stare
After all, we imagine them
