Flight by Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana

Flight

It’s eight-thirty and I’m drinking a half bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte for breakfast,

in the forty minutes before landing. Easy Jet’s Becky asks if there’s a special

occasion. I don’t tell her I’ve split up with The Narcissist, or that giving up a narc

is said to be as hard as quitting heroin. Or mention the new vocab I’ve picked up

in survivor groups: mirroring, devaluation, hoovering, trauma bond. Or that I’d

still like to have him inside me. Instead, I say: I’m having a book published. Becky

says: Wow, a physical book? That’s a real achievement. These days everything’s

online. She tells me she likes to have a book by her bed, to make notes. She asks

me to scribble my name on a paper napkin. And when the pilot says: Cabin Crew, prepare for landing. But before we touch ground let’s give a round of applause to Alexandra in seat 15A who’s getting a book published, I want to tell The Narcissist.

He’d love the fuss. Instead, I finish off champagne from my plastic cup with

melting ice. I hand Becky a copy of my first book, ‘Sing me down from the dark’,

and stepping onto the ramp, imagine Narc beside me walking in front, stealing the

light. Becky’s voice calls out, Now I can say I’ve met a celebrity. And Narc

vanishes. I step into the day.

Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana is a teacher, mentor and author of Sing me down from the dark (Salt; 2022). She delivers workshops for The Poetry School and The Poetry Business and she presented a workshop on zuihitsu, at the 2024 Japan Writers Conference. In the last year, her poems have appeared in The North, Magma, The Pomegranate London, The Waxed Lemon, Anthropocene and The Interpreter’s House.  Her second collection, Skinship, is forthcoming with Salt Publications, in September 2026.