Where Did All The Meaning Go? Poem by Kathlene Ann

What is a balloon but a useless piece of rubber after it's let out everything-all its air?
Red rubber wilts, shriveled and empty, once more a simple slave to gravity's law.
It shivers in the wind,
Remembering how that master once ruled its world, moving it this way and that;
Making it dance-swirl! -on a whim
As it traveled through life high above the filth on the earth,
Away from the dirt of the ground.

Perhaps tears of condensation or rain streak its wrinkled cheeks;
Perhaps they are tears of longing and loss.

Mayhaps it yearns to feel once more the hot breath that once filled its lung-like inards,
The breath that gave it purpose,
One man's kiss-of-life;
Mayhaps it simply misses him and his attentions.

In any case it's nothing now. Feels nothing now. Has nothing now.
Do you want me to end up like that, Dr. Therapist, sir?
I didn't think so, so I'll let go
Of nothing.
Inside my wilting red heart
Must remain a mystery
Cause without what fills that little red part
I might as well be history.