The Lead Balloons
The lead balloons!
on January 11, 2005. © -MFB III -All rights reserved
His mama used to
buy him red balloons
when he was a wee lad.
She'd watch his eyes sail upward
with that helium orb
in a vertical flight
as a smile stretched
in horizontal delight
across his face.
He'd dance as it bobbed
and he'd bob as it danced
on the end of a string
in the warm April breeze
and he shout in a tiny voice
"I Love you....Mom!"
as they both tiny stepped
up the avenue to home.
~~~~~~~~~~~
His mama bought a red balloon
the day he left and launched it
in honor of her grown up son.
It rose in a vertical salute as he
flew somewhere far above
on a horizontal path
across the earth's orb.
A tight smile crossed his lips
as he landed and embarked
on a mission for his homeland.
That red balloon exploded
the very next day
two hundred and twenty miles
from where she let it go,
and in the warm desert breeze
not too many weeks later,
a piece of lead ballooned
inside the chest of her dear boy.
His eyes ascended upward as
a splash of red imploded
then he danced and bobbed
as if on a string himself.
All the men around him
heard him cry out in a tiny voice
"I love you, Mom." as he
tiny stepped a few feet and
fell down into a venue of death
that would bring her only child home
~
In Arlington each year
upon the date
that fate stole
her sweet son.
One will find
among the many crosses
that stretch over
an endless field.......
that the white is almost pure
but for a tiny spot of red.
It sails above one cross
and highlights
the intensity of a
precious Mothers love.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ O
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