Ceremony
We gathered outside the patio and moved into the parking lot.
Standing in between cars and crowding the road
we keep our ears tuned to the music drifting from a rented room.
Our eyes are trained on a pillar of helium balloons
tethered to a box on the asphalt in the cool November night.
I stood by the spheres and carefully released one
with the sharp of my shears. This is when my brother
refrained from tears, to watch them sail away.
I moved through the crowd, passing the shears off to a cousin
and I found my place leaning on a hood next to you.
You put your head into my shoulder and let out a breath,
an audible phrase to compliment the view.
A pillar of spheres cut loose into the brisk night,
sailing free under a bright full moon.
The red balloon turned black against the backdrop
provided when the wax finally blooms.
My mother lets out a sob and a gasp,
and your hand moves up my back.
I turn my eyes back to the sky and you whisper
plans to me so we can keep the memory from fading.
Standing in between cars and crowding the road
we keep our ears tuned to the music drifting from a rented room.
Our eyes are trained on a pillar of helium balloons
tethered to a box on the asphalt in the cool November night.
I stood by the spheres and carefully released one
with the sharp of my shears. This is when my brother
refrained from tears, to watch them sail away.
I moved through the crowd, passing the shears off to a cousin
and I found my place leaning on a hood next to you.
You put your head into my shoulder and let out a breath,
an audible phrase to compliment the view.
A pillar of spheres cut loose into the brisk night,
sailing free under a bright full moon.
The red balloon turned black against the backdrop
provided when the wax finally blooms.
My mother lets out a sob and a gasp,
and your hand moves up my back.
I turn my eyes back to the sky and you whisper
plans to me so we can keep the memory from fading.