"Rally Day" by Emily Kingery

Our final terrific contribution of the day comes from Emily Kingery. More coming soon, and don;t forgot about the Community Poetry Reading at Rozz-Tox on 11/30. Enjoy!

Rally Day

We were plied with songs and lemonade, but those were not our incentive. We followed our teachers to the churchyard to watch them unspool ribbons. They snipped them at arm’s length and in bright, puckered words, repeated gospel to be copied down. We knew our home addresses by heart. We secured our tags and listened for the gas hissing holy spirit into our balloons. We cheered for the ascent, for our own small certainties. Our teachers went indoors for coffee, but we waited until our message faded from view, like a rash soothed.

In the weeks that followed, our mailbox hinges fell silent from disuse. We gave up expecting. We learned instead to wear ourselves out with longing, which became panic, became let us live to be one hundred and one, and two, please let this. Our words slipped through our lips each night until our need shrank away to some other place. If not to fill that place, why did we ever let go of anything? We thought of our balloons caught on distant trees in winter, bobbing fitfully until they sagged.