message balloons

you felt the outcome diagonal along your breast, the burst of a weather balloon the stop of time within your pulse we will lose balloons at times, raw fingers unable to grasp a thread; some will find them deflated with paper attached to strings in a front yard after rupturing above a suburban cul de sac decayed to scraps of cursive requiems have you walked the cemetery in mid-march? have you counted the number of times the name Plymouth is etched in granite? deposited at the far length of a grounds keeper’s red wire; a rock, weathered granite outlives a body in damp poise to persist an attraction for compass needle i found a box holding the laws of numbers dropped from a solar enclave by balloon; life supports dot the sky and here, a tenth of mass remains for a time capsule and here will lay new drifters in an equinox painted over by twilight’s rich saliva for a plate, a gown laid beneath the nearest kill proximity is dialect moisture a fuse; hunger, a fuse; cravings, a magnet an ocean unbalanced will become tides for coral brittle in transient supper dens underwater like cups immersed, a high rise window with fixtures of potted plants on balconies touched by high tide and time can leave a child’s dreadnought capsized in rhododendrons when plucking weeds from saline soil the tears of lashes clipped in a driveway unfenced, with wooden ramps and toolboxes laid out to repair red wagons slow was the red of a body pulled from a pickup truck this outdoor garage rearranged as if to extract an organ the sky transferred to us from a deflated balloon and to search the body’s coat for a pinned letter sent from a youth parking lot asking the sky, will you come for me? will this time forge a fire escape or an anchor in each suburban plot? i once clutched amber butterflies by their wings in a driveway where they felt safe upon goldenrod; to be caught in a motion my fingertips dusted by their pollen wings when each was taken to rest motionless until released; and i walked into the bushes where a metal detector found a dreadnought’s anchor and pulled it from the yard’s depths at one time a bathroom sink cradled a child’s ship open pathways, cheeks blushed in territorial equinox i transferred to linen the memory of a pipe sketched in the second grade, exiting a roof across the street and pushing a loose tooth; the thought of pliers could tug it free a child’s tooth can be positioned in a window planter box like a headstone in loose soil time nears Plymouth Rock and its etchings seeds disperse in a vacant lot where foundations once laid and grass fanned in twilight summer breath among the carcasses of balloons with letters fastened to string we came on bicycles to observe what no longer exists what no longer drifts from lukewarm seance eyedropper, mercury droplets touch a screen from my hand to log the temperature for old vacation tapestries and sidewalks chalk stained, magic; batteries touched to tongue, transient possessions http://www.westernpines.net/