LW Poetry

Birthday Balloons

His 15-year-old granddaughter came over with birthday balloons, floating ones which said, Happy, Happy Birthday, Party Hearty, Birthday King, and Caution: Senior Moments Ahead.

She said, Grandpa, I like your poetry book.

Where do you get your ideas from?

Oh sweetheart, he said, ideas are all around.

You just have to see them.

She raised her eyebrows slightly, and didn’t understand.

But Grandpa appreciated her question.

The helium balloons bobbed against the ceiling for weeks. Caution: Senior Moments Ahead slowly, day by day, shrank and inexorably sank closer and closer to the ground.

(Ideas are all around!)

—Fred Wind, Mutual 12