I saw a cartoon the other day
That had a balloon talking
It got insecure and then shrunk
I thought how apt an action that was
Don't we all feel small one time or other?
It's when I realised the balloon a good metaphor
For Life, for whom we are
We too start out life flat....Nine months later
Our mommies' tummies are inflated
Like a balloon
That balloon then shrinks and here we are
Baby fat and all, like some tube balloon twisted
The same kind that clowns make animals out of
Only now, our parents have made them into us
And then we grow
Sometimes we stay level
Other times our ego inflate
Most times we see what we can only see
That high we can only float
It is only when we go higher
That we learn of other things
Our minds expand
Our vision become inclusive
Isn't that how one must grow?
Isn't that how a balloon must expand the higher it goes?
The knowledge that it fills itself
The environment that makes it so
Finally, the balloon rises too much and pops
We too grow old and die
The pieces of balloon fall to the ground
We are buried in the ground
But for the balloon, it probably made a child happy once
Who, in his glee, had let it go
How about that old man?
Did he have a child he once made happy
And let go?
Fathers and sons
Mothers and daughters
Balloons they were all, once
- by TC Lai
