He couldnt be sure

         whether he actually recognised it was   in fact . . . a shining city on a hill

or if he projected it

                                the light of the world . . . a city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden

Matthew(5.14) insists

                                    Jesus said this during his Sermon on the Mount

but whatever it was he saw in the distance

cut into disparate parcels by paths and alleys and gangways as rural hillsides are carved and etched by domestic herds or suspicious wildlife  fleet  quick to disappear if alarmed

or perhaps it was a citadel

  

overrun by colourful throngs of children   girls in red dresses cinched at the waist by short white aprons    

boys dressed in deep blue

above the city or citadel were huge white hot air balloons that tugged at their anchors 

 

moved impatiently in the overhead breeze

they seemed almost clouds  tethered unwillingly to the earth  begging their release their return to the heavens from where they had been plucked

nearer

            he watched in discomfort as two girls and a boy scaled its outward ramparts

stones stained by green lichen and gray age 

                                                                                              

the three clutched at  and then began to climb the woven hemp that tethered a balloon

the rope groaned as the boy  the last to climb  did

their weight jerked and tilted the suspended wickerbasket

the balloon descended slightly

if the tether was knotted or it had frayed 

  

suddenly it broke free

the three children swung into the air over citys winding parcels and plots and tremulous ways

they swung back towards the stone wall but the balloon had ascended rapidly

although  s l o w l y  drifting into the city or citadels center

horrified  a cry escaped his throat

the children screamed

their legs came undone 

 

their feet lost their holds at the hempwound tether

their arms began trembling  not strong enough

their grasps slipped  not strong enough

the topmost girl fell

she missed the other girl under her but struck the boy

then she plummeted

momentarily  he held  kicking  clutching

then he fell too

the balloon jerked upward freed of their weight

  

and in that spasm the last child screamed and fell

the balloon ascended incongruously to the three falling   stark 
                                                                                                         individual

the girl burst into a redhaze and mist against the joint of a rooftop stone chimney and slate shingles

the boy struck the back of his head on an outbuildings copper gutter  then senseless cartwheeled atop and then through a wood lean-to beneath it

the other girl was impaled on a iron cock weathervane that rose from what seemed to be a public building

in a manicured square

they had tumbled gracelessly   without shadows     through the matte silver air

red 

 

and white

  

and blue

they seemed to him  he unknown in this land and city or citadel   sacrifices

his horror was greater  more apparent than theirs

                                                                                   or perhaps

their horror was somehow numbed

the freed hot air balloon was a speck in the sky  heavenbound

the other balloons continued lithely to tug at their anchors 

 

sunlit orbs    turning      beautiful 

 

begging  tantalising

                                                                                                                  the red white and blue children watched
 

mesmerized by them

1239,  Thursday,  8  10. 15

 dreamt Twosday into Day-between-Two-Ts  29  9.  --  30  9. 15