Floating

Image created by A. L. Peck

A cluster of assorted blues and greens, purples and oranges

Squeaked against each other to fight their cords of confinement.

Their helium heads pulled against the thin white strings that bound

Them to this earth and its gravitational rules.

Among the violent bunch you floated, shiny red and still from the

Rest. You had a static charm, and when the light bounced perfectly

Against your latex rubber skin, your shimmering incandescence,

Your brilliant cherry luster, I think I started glowing.

So I decided to keep you.

Sometimes I wondered if you were happy, tied down with all that

Air in your head. I knew you belonged up there in the clouds.

Sometimes I wondered if you would explode, one needle prick

Away from bursting. I knew you were meant to ascend.

So I let you slip away, watched as you became smaller

And smaller until you were nothing more than a tiny speck floating

Freely in an unsuspecting sky.