Little Boy Blew
for Sergio, Mariana & M.L.R.

all the air, all of a sudden
released again into the atmosphere

little boy's blue balloon
he was hitting up and keeping up
determined not to let touch the ground

does end upon the ground
is blown away, ahead of him
with him following swiftly

into the neighbor's yard
neighbors I am staying with
with whom I've stayed overnight

little boy's blue balloon
blows against a small flowering plant
and goes, pop

what was in it
suddenly mixes with what was without

what was a toy, a play-thing,
is a play-thing no more

a piece of rubber,
boy with his sister, in the road
babbling away in Spanish,
has no more use for

no use for what he cannot again
blow up, fill with air

in the early morning, on the beach
a day ago, I was asked,
at the point of her wanting penetration

wanting me to enter her, had I rubbers
"latex" is the word she used
I hadn't

we'd gone as far as we could go
as far as we dared go and turned back

climbed down from the great height
that we had gotten to

we'd have had no-longer-useful rubber
we'd have afterwards, most likely,
disposed of rubber in the sand
on the beach, full of little tadpoles

a generation of my offspring
Trojan warriors, dying, perishing
their tails whipping, lashing

we never got to that

what was left
of the little boy's blue balloon
he did not pick up

with his sister,
with her amber-colored balloon
fortunately still in tact,

they ran away, shrouded in
the noise they made


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2011
7:44 a.m. 04.11.11