Romance of the Three Physicists
I. Galileo
Everything I drop plummets to
the ground the same way and everywhere
looks like every place else.
I know the world is flat like
the chessboard in the Pope’s bedroom,
and I’m the piece – possibly a rook,
probably a pawn – falling off the side
of the table after being indulged by a
bishop or a better-off mathematician.
But a flat Earth is infinite
and everything stumbles one way
or another, so who’s to say that a fatal
fall is worse than anything
else that could happen in a world
where the only way to move is down?
II. Newton
I guess it’s colder now – we keep
warm with centered suns and multiple
alleyways and routes leading back home.
We feed ravens out of our hands
and admire faded plumage through
copper skeletons and yesterday’s headlines
not because we love art or politics
or sunflower seeds, but because.
we understand how hard it is
to spread wings in a cage that
we can’t fully comprehend – despite its
nebulous appearance – even when we
look through telescopes and bifocals. Science
says we move freely in three dimensions, but
illusions make our movements seem so static.
III. Einstein
Everything frees up if you surrender
enough time. Remember that
gravity holds things together,
keeps you from drifting too far
apart. If you try running fast enough
maybe you will finally escape
time and reappear when your children’s
children are jaded and arthritic – just keep in mind
that everything changes when you’re gone.
There’s that old saying about
loving things and setting them free,
and you’ve never been sure if that’s
really an option. I only ask that when you finally
come back, you’ll teach me what it’s like to be
a tired young man on an indifferent old earth.
Jack Foster is a Ted Pugh Prize winning writer from Southern California where he serves as the Production Editor of A Few Lines Magazine as well as the Lead Editor of Wormwood Chapbooks. His work can be found in several journals such as The Adroit Journal, Pomona Valley Review, and Yes, Poetry. Jack maintains a blog at www.jackfosterpoetry.blogspot.com