Blue Balloon

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Prose about a helium party balloon that lands in a vacant lot.
Distributed by Tubemogul.

Blue Balloon
by Jolie Blond
10/07/01

Blue Balloon,
hovering two feet
over a brownish, overgrown vacant lot,
like an off-color scarecrow,
like an airhead sentinel
guarding weeds.

From where have you come,
blue balloon?
Did you escape the small, stubby fingers
of a child,
breaking her young heart?

Did you tear loose from a grand opening,
floating away from your brothers and sisters
unnoticed?

Were you carelessly anchored or did you struggle?
Or maybe you're a terrorist weapon,
anthrax spores mixed with your helium.

I saw you last night, blue balloon
bobbing and poking your plastic head
a foot above the weeds.
Did you have a message for me?
For someone like me?

This morning I came out to visit you
and you were dead . . .or sleeping . . .
lying in the dirt amid the weeds
shrunken half last night's size,
immobile.

I never knew you, blue balloon.
I know you flew.
I know you soared to great heights
before you landed in the abandoned lot
where all manner of abandoned others landed;
broken stuff, unwanted stuff,
unusable stuff:
worn tires and broken pots
and candy bar wrappers . . .
but you flew there, blue balloon.
I'll give you that.

Tags: Revver, balloon, james jarvis, jolie blond, literature, marquisdejolie, poem, poetry, prose, reading, spoken word, metaphor, abandoned lot