BALLOONS

by William Aarnes

                after Ingar Christensen 

blown-up balloons exist 

and celebrations exists 

with their popping party balloons, 

adults as caught up 

in the popping 

as their kids 

 

and helium-filled balloons exist 

and the joyful, worried disappointment 

of their so quickly drifting away 

from outstretched hands 

to land somewhere they shouldn’t 

after they burst 

 

and hot-air balloons exist, 

colorful hot-air balloons 

for the risky thrill  

of being above it all, 

of looking down at the countryside, 

the treetops, the houses, the cars, 

the people puny as can be, 

hot-air balloon rides exist 

for that glorious, if fleeting feeling  

that everything’s yours 

as far as the eye can see 

  

weather balloons exist, 

meteorologists all around the world 

working together, 

twice a day releasing balloons,  

balloons that rise twenty miles high 

before they burst, their radiosondes  

parachuting back to earth  

with all their measurements 

of how cold and windy it is 

up above 

 

and spy balloons exist, 

because people don’t get along 

spy balloons exist, 

keeping track 

of whatever nefarious planning 

and digging and building 

and moving around 

must be going on 

 

and nation-states exist, 

nation-states puffed-up 

and thin-skinned as balloons 

William Aarnes lives in New York. He admires—and thinks everyone should read and reread—Susanna Nied's translation of Ingar Christensen's alphabet.

AMERICA FIRST

by Gil Hoy

The colorful Mosaic ceiling of the Chapel at the Normandy American Cemetery & Memorial symbolizes the United States which blesses its sons fighting for the freedom and a grateful France, which lays a laurel wreath among the fallen Americans who gave their lives for the liberation of the oppressed Europe. “On D-Day anniversary, ‘America First’ doesn’t sit well on the beaches of Normandy” —The Washington Post, June 6, 2019

Are we a family of nations
or are we not   How did                                                    
this nations thing happen
in the first place anyway
where just about every man
woman and child belongs
to one like a fraternity
or club   Was it a language
barrier or is that chicken
before egg banter   No slant
eyes here   No black eyes there

Americanized Lily White
Monet Europeans will inherit
the earth   Not the chosen people
Not the Nazis nor Jap equivalents

Build that wall   Rousseau wrote:
The man who enclosed the first
piece of ground was . . .
How many crimeswarsmurders
saved mankind by pulling up
stakes  Like the League
of Nations   Like Clinton
(the philanderer one)
at the second Obama DC:
“We’re all in this together
is better than you’re
on your own”

Not the selfish spoiled brat
hoarding all the kids’ toys
to be sent to his room
for a timeout   My adult
son was a little boy once
fighting sisters for front car
seats   And he was so sad when
his friend’s mother-made brownies
were eaten    Eaten by the class bully
who tried very hard to eat even
the last one   And many many many
more before that, before my starving
son had had even a teeny tiny bite

And our President wants
to bomb Iran (Liar!) and ban
transgenders and Muslims from living                                
in this world   His National Security Advisor
believes if you remove the top ten floors
of the UN building nothing happens
And his AG thinks Congress will
stay asleep at the switch   And London
protesters are disguised lovers who cannot
help but love our President and his terrific
economy, made in his own image
where tax breaks get richer and borders
get poorer

And when will the meek inherit
the earth   And where’s that last brownie
for my heavenly son and his starving
father to eat.

Gil Hoy is a Boston poet and semi-retired trial lawyer studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy previously received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared most recently in Chiron Review, TheNewVerse.News, Ariel Chart, Social Justice Poetry, The Potomac, The Penmen Review and elsewhere.