Samael

                            the balloonists

            there were many

                   who went by balloon in those days

            and       there was one

                 who  found a way to throw

                      clods of mud

                 from the ground

                             to the balloons -sometimes

         He knocked them sideways, blocked an

              ascent valve,  or just spattered

         the gondola's occupants  .Still , the

      balloons   followed  the wind , which formed

             ridges

                  in the sky

        that  they  would  drift  along the edges  of

              not  blind  , not uncaring

       just   not  particularly motile

                    without the wind .Reaching higher

    many joined great stratospheric wind-lines

           and scudded rapid  through the sky

    below  , Tom (the mud guy)  could see  this organization,  far

         above his throwing range and

    whirling up the sky behind him and  before him ; mad

      with fear , he fled  one way and then another , eventually

            to collapse upon the ground,  arms

            folded over his head, weeping,  terrified.

2010 Peter Greene.