Contributor’s Marginalia: Steve Castro responding to Mark Kraushaar’s “I fly too, or in my mind I do…”

The first thing that caught my eye in this poem was when the speaker mentions “I’m off to South Bend or even Vienna.” Most readers would assume the speaker is referring to South Bend, Indiana and Vienna, Austria, which is certainly the case due to the word “even.” I live in Southern Indiana, so the layers involved regarding the two named locations with Indiana ties caught my eye. South Bend is located in Indiana, home to the famed University of Notre Dame. Vienna is an unincorporated community in Vienna Township, Indiana.

Another thing that caught my eye was a blanket of death, horror, and oppression expressed in a moment in time that takes over this poem beginning in the final stanza, i.e., the speaker states, “Mostly I like to fly backwards in time.” The speaker then mentions the night of his conception, i.e., “mid-August 1944”, and continues to state, “my father’s / home on leave and the allies have entered Normandy.” We are immediately brought into World War II, considered the deadliest war in history.¹ As a reader, I cannot think of WWII without thinking of The Holocaust, “in which six million European Jews and at least five million Soviet prisoners of war, Romany, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals and other victims were murdered.”² The scale is grand. The speaker ends the WWII reference by mentioning Normandy, “known as the largest amphibious invasion in military history.”³

The final stanza continues, “It’s late and the upstairs neighbor plays her victrola: / Ellington, Holiday, Armstrong.” I find both Jazz & Classical music to be very soothing and relaxing. After thinking of the horrors of WWII, we change to a moment in time of relaxation and joy, i.e., the upstairs neighbor enjoying relaxing jazz music. But as a reader, I immediately thought about how, Ellington, Holiday, Armstrong, all African American, must have suffered due to their skin color during the 1940’s. The African American community are some of the most oppressed people in the history of planet earth. So right after referencing the horrific events of WWII, I am again reminded of the inhumanity the African American people suffered through in 1944 in the United States regarding jobs, education, health care, policing, their living conditions, etc. What was to be a transition for me as a reader from the horrors of war, to the joys of jazz, turned into more tragedy by reminding me how African Americans were treated as sub-human during those dark and troubled times in the United States of America. 1944 was eleven years before Emmett Till was murdered for the color of his skin in Mississippi in 1955.⁴

I go from the horrors of war, to the horrors of racial discrimination in the U.S., for African Americans, to thinking about the tragic personal story of Billie Holiday, and how she died at the young age of 44 due to substance abuse.⁵ Holiday’s death made me think of other Jazz greats alive during that era who also died young of substance abuse, e.g., Charlie Parker died at 34 years old.⁶ This was a powerful and emotional poem for me to read because when the speaker flies “backwards in time,” it reminded me of the cruelty of our human history that continues to this day.


1. Significant Events of World War II > U.S. Department of Defense > Story
2. The Holocaust | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans (nationalww2museum.org)
3. World War II: D-Day, The Invasion of Normandy | Eisenhower Presidential Library (eisenhowerlibrary.gov)
4. The Murder of Emmett Till | Articles and Essays | Civil Rights History Project | Digital Collections | Library of Congress (loc.gov)
5. Billie Holiday | National Museum of African American History and Culture (si.edu)
6. Charlie Parker – The Official Website of Charlie Parker | (charlieparkermusic.com)