by Jeffrey Zable

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A 6 or 7 year old boy was crying, “I want my balloon back …
I want my balloon back …”

To which the mother responded, “We’ll get you another one.
Try to calm down.”

“No! he needs to learn to be responsible!” the father said to her.
And I was struck by the way the two of them looked at each other
while the boy continued to cry.

As I walked on, I asked myself who I mostly sided with,
and not knowing any of their personal story I told myself
that my decision would depend on whether the kid
was generally irresponsible and manipulative or whether
his losing the balloon was just an unfortunate circumstance.

Either way, I decided not to make a decision at the moment …

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© Jeffrey Zable

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Jeffrey Zable is a teacher, conga drummer/percussionist who plays for dance classes and rumbas around the San Francisco Bay Area, and a writer of poetry, flash-fiction, and non-fiction. His writing has appeared in hundreds of literary magazines and anthologies, more recently in Chewers & Masticadores, The Gorko Gazette, Ranger, Cacti Fur, The Hooghly Review, Uppagus, and many others.

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