‘Connie Wolf, the Lady Balloonist from Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, Confesses’
— Reneé Bibby
Sunni Brown Wilkinson’s poem is the ideal way to wrap up 2017. Her plain-spoken narrator, based on the real-life adventurer Connie Wolf, has a unique and wonderful perspective from her hot air balloon. The views of the land must be epic from her perch in the sky, but for Connie it’s the sounds, rising up through the clear sky, that tether her to the human and the mundane:
Not rumors
of laughter but the laugh itself
rising up, Danke between neighbors,
crisp closing of a door, the cracked falsetto
of a boy milking cows.
In the isolation of her basket, with the longing for connection, Connie builds a narrative from the noises of living—finding enough emotional sustenance to last her the long days of her trip. Perhaps, as we move into the new year, we can be like Connie Wolf, willing to find a different angle to take in the world, attuned to the simple pleasures of being human, and grateful, even as it may sometimes ache, for the chance to experience it all.