The Blue Balloon

"I am a blue balloon,
I am a blue balloon not a red balloon,
I am a blue balloon living in a world
Of red balloons."

Perhaps because it was a blue balloon, it was let go. Even the wind was not keen to take it. The balloon bounced along the ground before a gust lifted it grudgingly into the air. It soared higher, hungry for freedom. It was away from that mean town with its traffic aggressive in pushing through narrowness.

The balloon gained height and passed over a park with souls below escaping the shove of their existence. But only the geese looked up and envied its ease of flight.

A motorway, a castle and a patchwork of fields followed as the balloon picked up speed on a freshening breeze. Village, farm and hill passed by in the crystal light of that crisp day. No one looked up at the growing balloon skipping high above.

Before long, the coast appeared with the blue of the sea flecked with boats braving the tides and waves. Beyond it could see the rim of a new continent with lands of equal blue and red. Then, as the balloon knocked on the door of the stratosphere and bloated with expanding gas, it burst asunder. So, it gave its blueness back to the sky leaving the world to the held-fast red.