Dear Gravity, by Rita Mae Reese

This morning I heard the bird in burden—the song
of it—and remembered something about light—the speed
of it, yes, and the separating of it from darkness.
 
But I thought too of how lucky fireflies are
to be of little economic importance. I thought
about human beings—a clever way water devised
 
to move itself around the planet—to defy you,
dear gravity. Water using star dust as vehicles.
We are watery stars that you hold close,
 
so close we believed we were wholly yours
but this morning a little bird reminded me
that we are really creatures of light,
 
light which is a millionbillionbillionbillionbillion
times stronger than you, dear gravity. Even when
you’ve pulled us down into our graves,
 
we escape your grasp and become
the light
                                    inside of flight— 

Poet and fiction writer Rita Mae Reese is the author of the poetry collections The Book of Hulga (2016), which won the Felix Pollak Prize, and The Alphabet Conspiracy (2011), which won the 2012 Drake Emerging Writers Award.  Find out more at ​https://ritamaereese.com/