With Painted Words

Ascension

by Marina Lee Sable

ASCENSION

 

If you catch the morning train,

take a look out of the window

and you might see us floating

high up in the distant sky.

 

Deserting rats in a rattan basket

strung to a hot air balloon,

ballast of jobs and obligations

tossed to the scattered light

of a smog-filled atmosphere,

the industrial sun's bitter orange.

 

Look out of the window, up and

away from the factory offal, sirens,

cacophony of cars and diesel trucks,

acid rain trees in contaminated soil.

 

By tomorrow, we'll be ensconced

in clouds of orange,

the color of energy and fire,

Halloween, harvest, and pumpkin pie.

It's also the color of change.

 

We'll steer our balloon

through a gold-capped cumulus

and ascend to the blue sky's promise

of freedom from a declining world. 

 

Come join us, if you dare.

 

by Marina Lee Sable