People Who Clap On Planes

A poem

Megan Minutillo
1 min readApr 17, 2024
Photo by Suhyeon Choi on Unsplash

Are my favorite kind of people. I’d like to think that they are the sort
of folks who also clap when the church choir finishes a song, and that they are the ones who wave flags at parades, and that they are the kinds of people who will always find an excuse to have a party with a theme, of course. Some may say it’s silly to applaud a pilot for landing on the ground because the alternative is something we don’t dare think about — but it’s not silly. It’s kind. It’s hopeful. It’s a reminder to all the passengers about how miraculous this journey is, that we just took a ride in a tin can 30,000 feet off the ground and took a good hard look at the clouds that whiz by our head daily, and then came back to earth without a hair harmed on our head. Such a feat is wild. Such a feat is a testament to human innovation. Such a feat deserves an applause.

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Megan Minutillo

Essayist, poet, and theatre producer. I write stories about self-awareness, IVF, and finding your footing in life’s messy moments. Instagram: @meganminutillo.