Floating high, up above the cloud tops
is a gliding big balloon that the Chinese have brought.
It is up there to keep eyes on us;
for spying it was spawned.
Back at base, guided in the air,
near the massacre in the Square.
Floating up above, quite high,
fly-to-spy Red balloon floats by.

Fly-to-spy Red balloon,
floating up above, with eyes.
“It is all swell,” the Reds blurt.
That’s the story they try to sell.
Should we end the balloon’s life
or let it keep passing by?
We all know it’s there to spy.
The Sinosplaining is all a lie.

Spy-to-fly wasn’t discreet;
eyes in sky generate heat.
Pictures taken won’t be blurry;
we have good reason to worry.
Does Ping want to start a war?
For more Ping pong we’re in store.
But nobody here is buyin’
Pong’s wrong “We don’t spy” Red balloon line.

Fly-to-spy high in the air…
it’s hard to reach by jet fighters.
Temperatures are close to zero
where the balloon does its work.
Who knows what it’s identified?
Maybe data that’s classified.
Sure would love to see it slide
down from the sky after it died.
But spy-from-the-sky balloon still glides.

Fly-to-spy teams must be glad,
as in on us their camera’s zoo.
So far, it hasn’t flown over cities,
and so far it has been blitz-free.
We have got good reasons to fear,
but decision’s far from clear—
what to do ’bout Red balloon…
shoot it now? Wait a day or so?


Written shortly before the spy balloon was blown from the sky