Let the balloons go outside. Let the balloons go outside. —Trish Keenan
Not long ago the Pope decreed that unbaptized babies would no longer be banished to Limbo and that their little souls languishing there would be released Imagine them getting the papal memo and rising in unison unsure of where to go except uptwirling like colossal flocks of river martins in dark enormous coilstheir outlines becoming eventually lighter then translucentthen clear
We might guess incorrectly that the accompanying sound would be the usual celestial harps and choirs instead of the intolerable shriek that trapped breath makes when it escapes from a balloon whose opening is being pulled taut or tens of thousands of these
Sebastião Salgado talks about traveling through parts of Brazil where babies died so frequently that churches rented out coffins for their funerals and reused them dozens of times A local vendor might sell bananas and ice cream alongside shoes in which babies could be buried Salgado also says that when babies end up in Limbo it has something to do with whether or not their eyes are open or closed when they are buried or is it when they dieI’m not sure The transcription of the interview is unclear
When someone in a movie dies with their eyes open the lids are made to look so easy to close A priest for instance or a doctor passes a reverent hand over the corpse’s face perhaps not even touching it and the task is complete
The morning you died our friend and your brother and I were in your bed with your body that overnight had decided it was no longer you but some awful machine designed to lurch and wheeze until it sucked in one more breath and did not let it out
Your eyes were open and when after a few minutes no one came to close them I tried to do it myself but the lids kept popping back open like busted window shades
The word limbo derives from the Latin word limbusa borderan edge It also is a dancethat also is a contest in which the winning dancer is the one who doesn’t fall
"I think you can’t be anything but hopeful doing this work. I feel like a mosquito going up against Godzilla. I am not going to topple you but I am going to bite you. And believe it or not, I have always had connections with people through poetry. Being black, male and 230lb, expressing vulnerability is a very rare thing, I’ve realised."
Resources for Supporting and Uplifting the Black Community
Blk Joy Book Scholarship: "The Blk Joy Book Scholarship is a selective scholarship program established to provide financial assistance to a deserving young Black student in pursuit of a collegiate education. Recipients must use the scholarship funds in order to purchase academic books for each school semester of one school year."
Coming to the Table: "Working together to create a just and truthful society that acknowledges and seeks to heal from the racial wounds of the past, from slavery and the many forms of racism it spawned."
Required Reading on Race: "Black-owned indie bookstores recommend readings "which discuss racism, and the violent and complicated history between black and white people in America, using inventive storylines and moving prose."
Poetry Daily stands with the Black community. We oppose racism, oppression, and police brutality. We will continue to amplify diverse voices in the poetry world. Black Lives Matter.
"It was not the first poem I loved but it was one which reshaped the foundations of what I thought poetry could be—abstract elliptical essay, sensuous discourse on aesthetic form, history, and a strange kind of oblique confession all woven together into a sprawling imagistic song."
