Balloon

By: Juan Guzman

 

With each day after the first 

You had fallen more in love with me. 

Until you had reached the end of it  

and began to defy gravity.         

January 27th  

was when you started floating like a balloon; 

and like the child I was                 

I could not latch onto you.           

You soared high up  

into the dimming oblivion – 

far out of sight,                                      

Leaving into a place of                  

paradise –                                                               

Elysium.                                              

Absolute silence  

except for a sudden deafening pop! 

A noise that served as a               

queue                                                                     

that you were never again          

going to drop.                                        

That’s when I realized 

the only reason you had floated away – 

was because I let go of the one string  

that had forced you to stay.