pro tempore

Nothing down there but trees

He had believed he was a ghost for a long time
He would introduce himself that way
Hello, I am the ghost of Daniel Johnston

And that day, in particular
He thought he was Casper
He brought one of those comic books
With him on our flight
And there was a picture of Casper on the front
In a parachute
Floating

And Dan decided to bail out
Let’s bail out
Let’s jump out

He grabbed the controls
He took the plane away from me
He’s stronger than me
This son of mine
Has a super-strength

And we were going straight up
And then spinning straight down
Nothing down there but trees
But I’d had training on ditching in trees
I didn’t stall it
I flew it into the trees
Between two big ones

And we walked out of there with our lives
The family came to get us—got me
We put Daniel in the hospital and left him there for five months

He’d had a great time of it that day
It was an adventure, a daily adventure for him
His free-fall to earth

.

I’m not sure this can even be called a poem—maybe a found poem, sort of.  It’s based on the commentary of Daniel Johnston’s father, from The Devil and Daniel Johnston. In 1990, after performing at SXSW, Daniel Johnston was flying home in his father’s private plane, when he had a manic episode and decided they ought to bail out of the plane, parachutes or not.  He removed the key from the plane’s engine and threw it out the window.  Luckily, Johnston’s father was a fighter pilot in WWII and was able to crash-land the plane.  It was one of the most moving parts of the documentary, I thought.