From Fire Balloons to Armadillos

I thought the poem "The Armadillo" by Bishop was very interesting.  When I first read through it I was not sure what she meant by the "fire balloons".  "the frail, illegal fire balloons appear." and later she says, "Last night another big one fell./ It splattered like an egg of fire"  At first I was wondering if she was referring to a firework.  Eventually, I got the idea that perhaps she was describing an asteroid.  After re-reading the poem with that idea from the start, I feel more confident that the fire balloon she is referring to is indeed an asteroid.  The poem describes the asteroid falling toward the earth, in a beautiful but dangerous manner.  I like how Bishop made the asteroid's effect focused on a few animals, the owls, the armadillo and the rabbit.  It acts as a reminder of how nature can be affected by such natural disasters while humans may not even notice.

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