had you going for several seconds,
left you to questioning what you
really believed was possible
in those moments when you
exited the Sunset Tunnel
and saw the thing flashing running lights,
like a Marvin the Martian cartoon.
You shouted, "Oh my God!
Do you see it?"
and right then you had to adjust
your incredulity to include
the dance of mist, the swerving
tail lights, the implausible.
Designed to deceive,
this hot air balloon had an outline
meant to disappear into the evening
with the safeguard of your certainty,
your reason alien to you then as it banked
off towards other explanations,
and by the time it righted itself
whole lanes of trafic were skidding
to the shoulder in a near
catastrophe of wonder.