Two persons making a balloon ascension in a promotional stunt died Wednesday when the rig drifted into high power lines and they were thrown to the ground. … After the accident, the balloon floated on for three miles before coming to earth in a vacant lot. — The Philadelphia Inquirer, September 20, 1968
Consider the serenity
the stiff wicker basket held
as it continued without them. Consider
how quickly silence came to travel
with it. No pilot sparking
fuel to roar into the empty
nylon moon. No wind stealing
away the silence as it cut
around the ropes and through
the wicker. It moved
with the wind, not through it.
There was no breath turned
into yearning words lost across
the open sky. No heart’s
red drumming.
Published in Riggwelter (Issue #31)