“relativity”
it’s been centuries inside this grief
& since, electricity in the home
then in the hands, but – still – the fields
then the gravity under a collapsed sun
& each bullet its own star
& the gravity under that knee, that hold
that seemed to send time echoing
back & forward & still. like sound
from a bell, bleeding from the sky
& still stuck inside dancing until dead.
love the bell, cruelty the ringing
grief the ear that catches the sound
we the air, disrupted, cruelty’s song
moving through, we survive –
or don’t – the notes. it’s not just
the field, or what burrows through
space to sweep us from earth
everything its weight
everything its pull, its horizon
morphing our brief event. & love
too can lock us out of time
& may you knew or know
or collide into that tether & stall.
but know today, which by this time
was ages ago, it’s gonna take
too many tomorrows to get through
yesterday, i pray for time
to deal with now. no, i pray to Time.
*
Danez Smith is a featured poet in the 20th Dodge Poetry Festival, a collaboration between the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, held October 17-19 in downtown Newark, New Jersey. More information can be found here.
