BALLOONS AND BALLOONISTS
(First published in “Control Column” 1967; re-published in “Winged Words” July 1974)(Weston on the Green, Oxfordshire. 1967)
Our aim (apart from the purely scientific)
is naturally, definite and specific:
The prompt and speedy rejuvenation
of this neglected form of aviation.
But still - the scented Oxford sky
is – simply – pale and calm and high.
The summer sun will surely gild
each vehicle with Inca splendour as it’s filled.
Swelling full-bellied they lazily drift
into oxford blue – silently lift;
time-forgotten as a dream
glinting on the summer stream.
Yes, we can hear the Cherokees
at Kidlington, like angry bees,
nagging at us – “Don’t forget –
Life should be URGENT!”
but oh!
not YET!
[EDITOR’S NOTE: as far as is known, Croghan never visited a balloon meet at Weston-on-the-Green, and the poem is from his imagination of what one would be like.]
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