Helium

They gave him a helium balloon

four years old, his chubby fist

gripped the ribbon and he was

caught within that red latex

that trapped the horrid sun within;

He bobbed it on its thread and

felt its base urge for the sky

so he opened his hand and

gave it what it wanted;

It skittered along the tree line

not straight as he expected

but instead back and forth

caught by the fingers of the wind

before it finally gathered its skirts

and headed for the sky;

He dreamed of that balloon

almost every night, the rest

of his life, tracked its flight

on the backs of his eyelids

and wondered, when it finally

reached that boundless blue sky…

is that what death is?