Today’s post is a poem I wrote a few years ago, originally for a poetry slam. I consider it the single best piece I wrote during my college career, and so I thought that National Poetry Month was the perfect time to share it with my current audience. This is “Gravity.”
Gravity is a bitch, but I let her have her way with me anyway.
She tries to keep me in bed every morning. I guess she likes
To keep me down, constantly. I’ve known since she first gave me her number
That it would be like this (it’s 6.67×1011, by the way—Somehow I’m
Feeling like she hasn’t been getting those texts I’ve been trying to
Send to her). I think it’s a doomed relationship, but she’ll never let me go.
I don’t even remember how long it’s been since I met her. I think I’ve
Known deep down that we’ll never be apart for long.
I suppose that her embrace is comforting.
Being too far from it can be disorienting. It’s a strange sensation.
Like I’m weightless—nothing without her touch.
It’s been a very strange relationship.
She said that she likes long walks on the beach,
But every time we’ve tried to go,
The tides come in. I don’t know what that’s all about.
She says it’s all relative.
I’m a nerd, and she knows it, but she still stays.
Some part of me hopes that she always will.
I think I’d probably fly off hurtling into space
If she ever left. It would be the breakup felt
By everyone around the world,
Even the people who don’t know me.
They’d all feel it. They’d all know.
What would they do if they found
Out? If they knew that I was the one who’d
Pushed her away? I think that they’d find
Me fairly repulsive. Yet somehow, I doubt
That they’d be in any position to do anything
About it at that point.
So I stay in this loveless relationship,
More out of the convenience of it than
Anything. It’s better for all of us that
Way, isn’t it? I mean, despite my feelings,
The attraction is oddly irresistible.
I’ll always be hers. It’s almost a crushing
Feeling of inevitability. Oh well. I’m stuck with her.
Gravity.
That bitch.
The Swords of the Ancients 