Reasons to Hate the Sky
reason 1: at six or seven
we were given balloons and told
that god might enjoy them.
i cried in anger while i watched
my nephew and niece reach past the car
window, turning palms to cerulean, releasing
ribbons from their ignorant fingers. somehow,
even then i felt that they would never
reach their destination
reason 2: after feeling the sun
after months of clouds, i welcome the rage
of having lost something
reason 3: there was a day when i felt
lilac coat my eyelids while the day
shattered in slow motion. this went on
every twenty-four hours. sunset
sunset. sunset.
reason 4: we have enough blue
in the world as it is. i have loved this color
too long to blink it beautiful again.
bluebells have raised me
to know that the farther you move
from the sun,
the darker you become.
reason 5: looking up i grow
dizzy. we cannot tilt our heads
without seeing evidence of our planet
rolling. this turning always
feels downhill
reason 6: a flattened happy birthday
beneath a tire’s heavy print.
all it’s good for now is burial
reason 7: how the ocean can’t be what it is
without the sky as a backbone. we must move
according to our spines. a great white
leaps, mouth up to take a seal in its teeth
and i think how fish and birds are both
swallowed against the same background
reason 8: the balloon, trembling
within the car, tail wrapped around
my careful fingers. feeling its oxygen
as a promise of deflation, it wonders
if i’ll keep holding on
while it withers
Photography by Sumner McMurtry