14 May 2007 | Vol. 7, No. 1

After a Wedding.

by KEVIN STOY

for Josh and Amber

Dusk and a group of balloons deflating

onto a packed runway. It's defeating.

Plane after plane noses by them in time

before leaving. From the sky, my flight's arc

limits the city's pulse into a line

of lights nudging passengers through the dark.

The landscape one's perception will invent

is incredible. A couple's dissent

may travel upward silently. This height

hones their home down to a spark: one sharp speck

under the night's violet dome. Its gumption

spots my perspective—a case of how stuck

a sight can be. With memory less slight,

the balloons allow each plane's ascension.