Corroded clouds exude narcotic, honeyed sap,
Quelling ancient mayhem in a digital trap.
A quiet ritual, a ballet of bone and steel,
As the mind succumbs to a whispered, lucid deal.
Relics hum in the hollow of the throne,
Nerves collapse in a drug's strange, echoed tone.
A gilded cage, its promises now dust,
I grow my paper-cut wings, born of fragile trust.
Birds wrapped in sung sun swallows
tangled in helium let off balloons
bursting to confetti on new year's eve
silvery sliding snakes race the rails
against roller- racing take-off gliders
Every father's grudge to my pain
auto-flight lever adjustments
The rotors caught up in balloons,
black and filled with octopus ink
and finally pressure bursts on the fink.
Goofy high pitch gas
When heated past lambda point
Goes superfluid
I am a celebration for the glad
I am a release for the sad
I brighten your every day
Yet made to want to float away
I am a delicate bouquet
A gift when no words are to say
I am in parade and holiday march
I am your graduation arch
I am delicate and precise
I am the thought of something nice
I am scary when you poke my skin
I am funny if you breathe me in
Full of hot air, hope and helium
I can’t float if you don’t leave me some
And all I really, really want to do
Is float aimless into big sky blue
Slowly drifting out of view
Waving in the wind goodbye to you
Feb 6, 2023
Balloons Contest
Sponsor: Anthony Biaanco
The helium balloons adhere,
Now partially deflated,
To the ceiling, rating not a glance,
Though they had been awaited.
Of course, there was excitement
When at first they were presented.
Their absence surely would have been
Acknowledged and lamented.
But two weeks later, they are stuck,
Now finished with fulfilling
Their purpose, so they cling to life,
Their insides slowly spilling.
No stranger is this heart of helium
Inert in its silent self-destruction
Each word I speak is marked with an asterisk:
Devalued by years of backwards investment
I became my own deceiver
Letting my mind speak for my heart
After much misguided infatuation:
I had indulged my heart to the point of starvation
My brain is filled with strangers' definitions
With conceited aspirations, adrift towards despair
I'm grounded in disguises to hide my resentment
But, I could never run from my hippo campus...
Darkness in illumination
What is this that strides before me
Ah!, Helium Orbs, Earth is saved!
Visual 1
~*~
James Andrew Fraser
Helium Orbs
January 3rd, year of 2015
The son of Helios He was the noble Helium
But He was an elemental slug fond of Valium
All said He was not at all noble
He was basically Ignoble-
Anomalous wetting of Helium on Caesium
Periodic Table of Elements - Poetry Contest
Sponsor Anthony Slausen
12/03/2014
Helium balloons may last
Well past when they're inflated,
Although longevity like that
Is vastly overrated.
For who needs "Welcome Baby" ones
When yours is two years old;
And most "Congratulations"
After weeks start growing cold.
Balloons fulfill their duties well
But often they will pop;
With helium, however,
All those greetings never stop.
Yet there's one way to tell
If a balloon should bite the dust -
When it's puckered, loose and droopy,
Then its message you can't trust.
white helium balloon
not quite taut
from summer heat and long ride
in the rental car
let fly
by a son
to picture a father
going to a better place
crowd of friends, family
circle round
watch the orb
rise ? just slightly
then hover
just overhead
string dangling forlornly
barely out of towhead's grasp
sad eyes turn to adults
unspoken comes the question, "Why?"
"Never one to leave a party early"
nods a bearded desert-rat
slowly the drooping symbol
wafts past onlookers
barely skimming yard, garden
comes to stop over newly-mown alfalfa field
Gravity persists
drops it slowly
string entwines
among the green stubble
a calloused hand finds
young boy's shoulder,
shaking, as tears fill
saddened brown eyes
"Heaven's whereever he most loved to be, son.
That'd be right here. His flight was short."