Valerie Witte
from hold short bravo

what lies beneath families mixed in unfamiliar men


we don’t have any contradictions with the government right we don’t have any


contradictions with the media right


\\


469,407 square nautical miles you


can drift in four days


depending on size buoyancy


wouldn’t be homeless you’re


another vessel joining


the bluefin’s ninth mission


then enter the deep, keep


looking for something to uncover


an oil slick


the bodies of 49 students in one room


but that is a different disaster

Valerie Witte
from hold short bravo

\\three weeks later\\





you’ve been feeling a little


psychic lately dreams seeming


reflective, a kind of reality


swallowed by a black


hole, struck


by a meteor, abducted by aliens, time travelers or


beings from another


dimension


\\


they do not know why


they do not know how


\\


when


do we get to stop worrying


when dread is


superseded by several acoustic


pings ping ping ping


the frequency too far


apart what is a door


where inputs & outputs


converge a means of clearing


dozens of parameters collected


when preserving the cockpit sounds of pilots


what must be orange


a testimony of internal workings uncharted


voices


\\


immarset immraset imarset


inmarset ikmarset ijmarset imnarset

imkarset imjarset


immsrset immzrset


immqrset immaeset immatset

immagset immafset


immareet immaraet immardet


immarwet immarxet immarser immarseg

immarsey


\\


recording by beacons attached


to contact water


or the sound of cars running over


leaves can quiet too

Valerie Witte
from hold short bravo

\\five weeks later\\






in a cargo hold


you are always searching


for places to sleep


a duvet or a rug it all looks the same


laid down flat or rolled


in a tube a transcript of emissions


permission you can’t hear because earplugs if


southbound emergency


fall


silent in a matter of days


\\


good morning


six thousand feet squawk two one zero six


we are ready requesting flight level


charlie one requesting push and start


mike romeo oscar


hold short bravo


you are unreadable


hold short bravo


cleared for takeoff


good night


climb flight level one eight zero


night one three two six three seven zero

Valerie Witte
from hold short bravo

to start at the center


fanning out no one would know you


wouldn’t have to miss atmospheric


pollution the sun unobscured


sonobuoys


where UVR is stronger


what does it mean (don’t you know)


the final arc is very clean


\\


& here in a meadow


you’ve seen them many


times emerge at dusk


what in daylight dissolves in hunting


season yet do not be afraid but focus


on what is granted on waking every day


\\


sonar on a sled on a tether


limited to three


knots the autonomous underwater


vehicle, aka unmanned


submarine slightly faster


we do not have a debris field

Valerie Witte
from hold short bravo

\\seven weeks after\\





we all go missing it’s


the mystery that kills us that


counts the number of others


lost until every now


& then surfaces in the news, you mean you miss


pushing things suggest


meditation & he laughs why is it funny


he says it isn’t


don’t speak to break off no matter how you shut


up you are always interrupting


\\


they sent all the living


home


\\


if contours delineated


how other people rely on other


people edges reshaped by landslides knowing


they will never leave but everyone


eventually gives way

Valerie Witte
Notes
Italicized lines have been lifted or adapted from the following sources:

cnn.com/interactive/2014/04/world/malaysia-flight-documents

washingtonpost.com/world/their-relatives-declared-dead-families-of-plane-passengers-boil-in-anger-march-on-embassy/2014/03/25/59981710-b40c-11e3-b899-20667de76985_story.html?hpid=z2

Some of the language in this text was adapted from the blog of Jeff Wise (jeffwise.net).