{"id":102462,"date":"2016-09-08T16:01:42","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T20:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=102462"},"modified":"2016-09-08T17:24:43","modified_gmt":"2016-09-08T21:24:43","slug":"good-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/08\/good-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Good to Go"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"balloon-thumbnail\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Cassandra Cleghorn\u2019s poem \u201cGood to Go\u201d appeared in our Winter 2000 issue<\/a>. Her collection<\/em>\u00a0Four Weathercocks<\/a>\u00a0was published in April.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

You get yourself to the point where
\nyou\u2019re sketching on napkins. How to
\ncluster the balloons, rate of lift. Altimeter,
\npenknife, compass, jerky, two-way radio,
\nCoca-Cola, L.A. County road map, pellet gun,
\nquestion mark, question mark.
\nIf you should plummet, slash
\nthe water jugs rigged to the frame
\nlight as a bird\u2019s bones. Christening:
\nInspiration<\/i>. The end of lists.<\/p>\n

Calm in your lawn chair, tilting slightly,
\ntethered to forty-two weather balloons,
\nyou\u2019re vaulted two miles up into
\nthe third busiest airspace in North America,
\nsaying, Wow, man! Unreal!<\/i>
\nAll the gear secured except the gun,
\nwhich does lurch from your lap.
\nYou watch it fall toward the motherboard\u2028
\nof a city, until your eye can\u2019t parse the splinter<\/p>\n

the gun becomes. No way in heck<\/i>. Machines
\nof rising and descent. No way. <\/i>Evidently
\nthe helium begins leaking out. So you plunge,
\nraining spring water until your chair parts
\nthe power lines above some guy\u2019s house and
\nyou hang there like something the stork bought.
\nFifteen years later you will shoot yourself
\nin the San Gabriel Mountains,
\nabove a place called Idlehour.<\/p>\n

But what if the Santa Anas had claimed
\nyour rig, gusts wheeling off the canyons?
\nSoaring over Highway One, over the
\nspine of sand keeping everything we do
\nfrom all we wish for and can never know;
\nstreaks of sapphire and beryl stone; broad,
\nrusting bands of kelp; clarity to a point; silhouettes;
\ndepth. Skim off the top fathom: no bright fishes,
\njust primitive stuff getting by in the dark.<\/p>\n

Eyes strain, soreness in the neck. Ease back
\nin yours ling off waffle webbing.
\nTry out a theory: space mirrors the sea.
\nThere will be time to consider objections.
\nA sip of Coke. Revert to verses marked
\nin mind alone, something, something,
\nyes, sandstone\u2019s crumble. Remove by day
\nin their sight, in their sight. Sigh,\u2028
\nbut not aloud, <\/i>Transistor falls,
\nunremarkable plash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cassandra Cleghorn\u2019s poem \u201cGood to Go\u201d appeared in our Winter 2000 issue. Her collection\u00a0Four Weathercocks\u00a0was published in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1188],"tags":[24415,24417,19907,3539,165,24416],"class_list":["post-102462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-archive","tag-cassandra-cleghorn","tag-four-weathercocks","tag-from-the-archive","tag-poem","tag-poetry","tag-weather-balloon"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGood to Go<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A poem from the archive.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/08\/good-to-go\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Good to Go by Cassandra Cleghorn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"September 8, 2016 \u2013 Cassandra Cleghorn\u2019s poem \u201cGood to Go\u201d appeared in our Winter 2000 issue. 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