POEM: The Balloon

Untethered,
The balloon is loosed in thin air.
Once trapped by the umbrage of dangling branches
Once dogged by splintered pickets of fences,
Once snaggled by street signs and traffic lights
Tangled with telephone and electric wires,
Hedgerows were her only horizon,
Clouds - were only dreams.

Free, she jukes her head left and right
She wiggles her string in a dance of flight.
Below, her prison is so small,
So dull and confined.
She wonders how it ever could have intimidated her
As she continues her ascent.

The earth grows even smaller
Heaven looms ever larger.
The flitting of angelic light, slow at first
Then picking up with the glow of dawn,
Lifts the sadness that mixes with the fondness of what once she called “home” –

In the end, though, she is merely heaven bound -
Taking her place among the gulls and blue herons.
Majestic, she aspires to become the sprite of God,
A creature once she dreamed herself to be.