Hopes dimmed on Wednesday
for a priest who vanished
after sailing into the air
under hundreds of colorful balloons.

The priest has been missing since Sunday,
when he lifted off from Paranagua
wearing a helmet,
an aluminum thermal flight suit,
waterproof coveralls,
and a parachute.

Rescuers in boats,
planes and helicopters
continued to search
off Brazil”s southern coast,
near where a cluster of yellow,
orange, pink and white balloons
was found floating in the Atlantic.
Others hunted through coastal forests
for signs of the priest.

I told him the winds
would carry him
all the way to South Africa.
He said
that he”d studied everything carefully
and that he would go ahead.
I honestly thought he was joking.

It is getting harder to hold on to our optimism.