What I think about when I think about gravitational waves
I. Fabric
A pastel pattern of pink
and violet wild flowers
lightly outlined in thin charcoalf
on a sheet pegged to the clothesline
rippling in the wind over grass
a girthy woman
stretching out her arms
pinching the four clothespins off
one by one
to set the sheet free
But then she holds two corners
and as if whipping a fly
off the nose of a lion
she rids the fabric of motion
with one
loud
flap
II. Conference
The man in front
of the slide show said
you can see the earth
he said
jiggling like jello
he said
but don’t be afraid
he said
and I hadn’t been
until he said it
the earth
doesn’t really do this
he said
the effect
he said
is greatly
exaggerated
he means
I think
the animation
where said earth jiggles like jello
though the kind of Jello one might
find on a Pinterest board
for Earth Day
I googled
all things gravitational
Newton explains
it said
the tides
and I hoped
nobody ever knew
I had never thought
they needed
an explanation
III. Spacetime
All bodies move
to their natural place
The attraction
equal
to the product
of their masses
divided
by the distance
between them
Listen to their whisper in space
ripples in the fabric of their sheets
waves
as two merge
into one
* “What I think about when I think of gravitational waves” was written as a reaction to the news of the detection of the sound Gravitational Waves (see http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35524440 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEPIwEJmZyE&feature=youtu.be&t=3m47s and https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/feb/14/british-scientists-crucial-role-in-stronomical-breakthrough-gravitational-waves-einstein)
♦ ♦ ♦
Fall
Song
birds
rain
down the
neighborhood
not song
not feather
not rain
but the dark
tarry weight
of the body
propelled
to gravel
by gravity
Cats and dogs
curious creatures
they are
possible casualties
residents keep
their leashes
tight on their beloved
pugs, may Sally B rest
in peace
An anchor
says it is not
just any
kind, no
sparrows, no
pigeons
only grackles
and I say
there are fucking birds
falling
from the sky
But part of my outrage
part of my wonder
is faded by familiarity
not Hitchcock
not Poe
but the 50 0 0 birds
that fell before
on another season
another place
I had forgotten
as if its name
had not been
‘New Roads’
but ‘Macondo’
a different disease
a whole different type
of epidemic
As I wait for people
in hazmat suits
I am afraid
of forgetting
but I am more afraid
of remembering
The premise of duty
to bigger catastrophes
no longer works:
no gravel
on that fall
But it is impossible
not to think
of Aleppo
under its own absurd
rain
I try
to think
of time
as an abstraction
and stars above the clouds
above the birds
as they see us
as small
as bees
* “Fall” was written as a response to news of birds falling dead at a neighborhood in Boston and in New Roads (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/10/birds-fall-from-sky-in-boston-die-of-unknown-cause and http://www.reuters.com/article/us-louisiana-birds-idUSTRE7034DG20110104).
