"Tell me what you know about dreaming"
– Kid Cudi
Nearly as often as not
when I walk by the balloon shop on your block
I have this drawn-out thought
of all the balloons it has in stock
inflated to fullness, knotted and taut.
Yellow and green and blue,
they bubble from the shop into the sky,
cluster in air for a moment or two
above buildings but not too high
and glow where the sun shines through.
A balloon for every dream in town,
I think to myself on the street below.
(The same few dreams abound, abound.)
Up and out and apart they go;
Off they drift without a sound.
"Do not come down! Do not come down!"
A time will come, they won't obey.
They'll drop alone on muddy grounds,
while above the city silently
a new balloon cloud mounts.
Ed. note: the poem appears in the spring/summer 2020 issue of 32 Poems.