Death is the ultimate gravity.
Astronauts understand this, and live forever,
but weep as they work, knowing they can never go home again.
What friend, what doctor,
can comfort the deathless in their solitary endlessness?
What aspect of research,
what nourishing knowledge
could ever make their exile bearable?
Look! In the sky!
Nothing.
Woman, you cannot touch them; there is nothing so remote as a departing spouse,
sure of everything and saying so,
all the while
fearing the fire of re-entry
and the facing of wives and waves which once welcomed, and now destroy.
______
for get listed with grapeling at real toads.
You turn the words into bullets here, and shoot down a lot of comfortable cliches in the process. Love it from first line to last, but especially the tone of bleak certainty, like Medea's own script, in the conclusion.
ReplyDelete"What friend, what doctor,
ReplyDeletecan comfort the deathless in their solitary endlessness?"
Indeed. There really is none. Vitamins, a nice breeze, warm hugs, deep sleep. These are really all we have in the way of medicine. Not to achieve healing, per se --- but to make the slow-death grab at us in a less painful way.
"Look! In the sky!
Nothing." ... I love this.
"and now destroy" ... I like the touch of anti-Buddhism in this --- as if all the "floating away into the atmosphere" (escapism, as it were) is really just ruining the good NOW moments we do have.
Each word and phrase fated. The opening is carved in the marble of my memory now, Shay
ReplyDeleteWhat price immortality? Sure, they'll live on in history lessons, yet sacrifice so many of the small pleasures of living now. Thoughtful words.
ReplyDelete"which once welcomed, and now destroy." Wow! Powerful!
ReplyDeletewow...
ReplyDeletecomforting words to a sacrifice known only to the lamb.
ReplyDeletewonderful shay
gracias
Death is the ultimate gravity...
ReplyDeleteHow very, very true.
Pat
Critter Alley
I, for one, love anything that will take me into space.
ReplyDeleteI adore this poem.
I am loving this, especially:
ReplyDelete"sure of everything and saying so"
I love the idea of never being able to go home again, from space. So true of life, in so many ways. Once we've touched those stars...found wishes...it's all over from there.
Whoa! This is so rich and so unexpected.
ReplyDeletelike an oracle, Shay - wisdom that most can barely gasp at.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear you're on the mend, too.
thank you for adding your voice ~
Wow! Deep reflection on gravity. That ending is a killer.
ReplyDelete