Party Balloon
The host has gone missing
and the booze is already kicked
the playlist regurgitates
the same seven songs on repeat
while the only company left
is just friends of friends.
“Everybody likes to party,
but no one wants to clean up!”
I say to myself in the living room
before a balloon
the color of electric lime
taps my shoulder to remind me
where to locate the front door.
Outside
I twirl the string
between my fingers like a cigarette
and wait for my taxi to arrive
still catching the fragments
of conversations inside
always shifting always changing
to 1993 or spring 2001
to some graduation party in 2019
or yesterday morning in Asbury Park
always someplace else but here.
In the back seat of my ride
I roll down the window
as the headlights shake up the dark
then let the balloon float away
disappearing into the night sky
despite the jutted stars.
The driver doesn’t say a word
but instead races forward
on the highway that offers more
the breeze on my face
the radio dishing out love and hurt
and for the first time
in a very long time
it feels like I’m finally going home.
Cord Moreski is a poet from the Jersey Shore. He is the author of several books, including Apartment Poems (Between Shadows Press, 2022), Confined Spaces (Two Key Customs, 2022), The News Around Town (Maverick Duck Press, 2020), and Shaking Hands with Time (Indigent Press, 2018). He was the host of the popular poetry series Coffee & Words and the pandemic virtual series The Couch Poets Collective. Moreski has been previously nominated for awards, including the Best of the Net Anthology and the Asbury Park Poet Laureate (2016, 2018). In addition, Moreski was one of the original members of the NJ Poetry Renaissance, where he played an integral role in the movement’s initial development. This was later highlighted in the PBS documentary series Here’s the Story: Voices in the Garden in 2023. When he is not writing, Cord waits tables for a living, spends time in Philadelphia with his girlfriend, birdwatches in Sandy Hook, and teaches middle school children that poetry is awesome. You can follow Cord here: www.cordmoreski.com