Red Balloons

There once was a girl who always wore her hair in two braids

She always wore two ribbons

And she always wore two bows

Her mother forced her into pretty red dresses

Even when the girl said no

 

The girl didn’t like bows or dresses

And she hated the color red

She didn’t like the hue of roses

Because roses only bled

 

So the girl played in the dirt

(Which deeply upset her mother)

She felt like a grass stain on her own life
(Nothing but a bother)

 

She only wanted to please her mother

But she just couldn’t get by

So when the grass stained her life

She decided to take to the sky

 

She only wanted to make her mother proud

So she chose the color red

She ignored her mother’s frantic calls

And stared down at the riverbed

 

She looked down and saw grass stains

She looked up and saw balloons

She looked down at the rocks

And the way the water turned blue

 

So the girl took the leap

In the early morning light

Thinking if she jumped

Maybe she would take flight

 

It broke everyone’s heart

To heart the mother cry for days

While staring at the popped red balloon

Lying in the bay