The sky is my escape,
Swept along by a beam and a wisp
Riding high over the shades of a surface in conflict,
Forty-five helium balloons tied to my lawn chair,
Happy in my webbing, the tracks of my foolish ways
Shrinking beneath me to nothing,
Up where the oxygen thins, the open unmined air
So peaceful, pure altitude,
Leaving the coast with a frozen smile
Over the curve of the sea
And never coming down,
Riding to heaven,
A clean getaway.
Inspired by the 1982 flight of Larry Walters, who tied 45 weather balloons to his lawn chair and, armed with a BB gun for his descent, rose to a height of 16,000 feet. "I love the peace and quiet," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1988. In 1993 Walters hiked into a remote spot in the Loa Angeles National Forest and shot himself in the heart. His chair, lost for 20 years, resurfaced this month.
