gravity drives the blood and bends the light

In the words that run from our lips,
in the waterfall of images that
cascade and plummet our brains,
always tumbling into the past
in the moment of their calling,
gravity drives the blood and bends
the light that courses in our veins:
it shapes the stars, breaks our bones,
spills the clouds onto the ground,
sets the boundaries of our play.

From the wail of birth's hard fall
to the coffin's silent roped descent,
from the pull of an age that was
wide and weightless to the weight
of miles passed and years defined,
gravity bends the light and drives
the blood that courses in our veins:
it breaks our bones, calls us down,
keeps us spinning round the sun,
fuses cells and time and flesh
and takes our breath away.

~ Bruce Boston

in memoriam

William Harold Kerns

August 20, 1918 - March 27, 2006