Bianca Stone

Yellow Balloon

Odette wanted her yellow balloon back
although it was pitch black

and her eyes were closed
and there is nothing that would return

such a gift. And the next morning
even I had to harden my heart

to the residential pest control services
outside on my sister’s front door

as if it was something
to be achieved—but it is

a refusal of some God
that torments me. Wasps

fighting in formation
and dying. How all we do

is move from meal to meal.
Drink to drink. It is not even syphilis. It is

the human state. A kind of
psychosis of sadness

of being in a world
we cannot bow to.