ELEVEN THIRTEENTHS OVER HER

I tied a note: I AM OVER YOU
To thirteen blue balloons
And drove to a wooded lane.
I released each one: "GOOD BY."
Most bounced up through the limbs
And bobbed away on the breeze.
But two hung up in the dark tangles
Lolling there without relief.

I keep a picture of Theodore Roethke over my desk. If I turn out a good poem, sometimes; he seems to wink at me. Joe Crookes