A Way of Communicating Captured in a Poem

At the Airport Baggage Claim We contemplate a parade of skis, Boxes, bags, and attachés Some of them, unclaimed The first time by, meander All the way around and out, Dumb and colorful as cows. A deaf woman watches Her husband talk in sign. I cannot read his tongue Of wrist and fingertip Although there seems a sadness And his hands fold finally Into themselves. On his shoulders sits a little boy Whose hands, above the father's head, Are making up a second story— Something, I think, about a plane. by Charles Darling as heard on The Writer's Almanac and read by Garrison Keillor