The balloon rose into the clear September
over Olean with Carrie Myers, daredevil,
trapeze artist posed with her arms outspread.
she rose up until she was a silhouette
against the blue. She rose up
and what went wrong, no one knew.
They saw that darkness, that speck of her
dropping toward the fairground.
She fell. the crowd helplessly watching,
running to see if there was anything
to be done. Covered her.
No one claimed her – not the man
who booked the shows, not the one
who filled the balloon, held the ropes,
let them go, waved her up.
No parents, brothers, sisters,
husbands, lovers. But those who
watched her last act raised a monument
to her in Mt. View Cemetery.
Her great courage rising back into the blue
where she belongs, all spangled and defiant.