[1335] Balloon Fight

   'This morning, the American, Steve Fossett, ended his Round-The-World
   balloon fight...I'm sorry, balloon "flight"...in northern India.'
   	- The Today Programme, Radio 4, 20 January 1997

It ended in Uttar Pradesh.
It had to.
You can't go around the world
attacking people with balloons
and expect to get away with it.

What may be mildly amusing
at children's parties
in Upper Manhattan
will not seem so funny ha ha
on the Falls Road.

How Fossett fought his way
across the former Yugoslavia
I'll never know.
Some folk never grow up.
Hang on to their childhood.

Believing in the Tooth Fairy,
watched over by the Man in the Moon.
Thank you, Mr Newsreader,
for bringing him down to earth.
For bursting his balloon.

	-- Roger McGough

I had to laugh out loud when I read this poem, at the sheer *image* of our
intrepid hero working his way around the world and hitting unsuspecting
people with balloons.

As a child, McGough came as something of a revelation - I had always loved
poetry, but only if it rhymed and scanned. McGough was the first poet to
show me that modern poetry could be pleasurable, and here, watching him turn
a simple slip of the tongue into a wonderful piece of whimsy, I'm glad to
say that the magic hasn't faded.

martin

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From: "Anustup Datta" <anustupd@>

Great find, Martin. Made my morning.

Regards
Anustup