Still Giddy
I come untetheredmy flesh expanding, ballooning
suffused with blood rich
with hydrogen, or helium
whichever is most combustible
heart pumping like a bellows
flush with the effort, racing,
rising giddy, reaching for the sun
lush and golden -- I need no wax
no feathers, there is nothing left
to melt -- the danger is in bursting
expanding and dissolving
transforming into a cloud
inarticulate particles, beautiful
but alien, repulsive, untouchable
so touch me, ground me, tie me down
by an arm, a leg, a single strand
of rust-dyed hair, be my tether,
elastic and infinitely long;
risk the dizzy flight.
(Look, Jed -- it's a zeppelin love poem. :-)