Red Balloon Rising
Red Balloon Rising
by Laurel Blossom
I tied it to your wrist
With a pretty pink bow, torn off
By the first little tug of wind.
I’m sorry.
I jumped to catch it, but not soon enough.
It darted away.
It still looked large and almost within reach.
Like a heart.
Watch, I said.
You squinted your little eyes.
The balloon looked happy, waving
Good-bye.
The sky is very high today, I said.
Red went black, a polka dot,
Then not. We watched it,
Even though we couldn’t
Spot it anymore at all.
Even after that.
I really enjoy plain language poems. There’s the obvious on the 1st read (what parent has not experienced the dreaded lift off of the balloon)and then upon reading again and again one finds little secrets throughout.
My favorite line is: the sky is very high today,
I see this poem as symbolism for parental letting go. Maybe I see this because my youngest is graduating high school this year–but I can relate: the sky is very high today.