Gravity
(A Solstice Poem)
by Jeffrey Owen Pearson
by Jeffrey Owen Pearson
When asked what he would miss
while travelling in space,
the astronaut said, gravity.
And though we reach for the stars,
and though it yanked Icarus
out of the sky,
gravity is like that mother
who flicks our ear
to put us in our place.
It’s that thing that pulls the sun,
now at its farthest station,
back toward the earth.
That dark hand that reminds
each plant and animal and man
that winter is a time of earth and root.
That godlike thing who doesn’t see
but watches everything we do
and brings us together where we belong.
Bio: Jeffrey Owen
Pearson’s poems have appeared in The Best of Flying Island, So It Goes,
Reckless Writing 2014 Anthology, Tipton Poetry Journal, Flying Island,
and Maize. “I have fallen asleep again reading Homer” placed third in the
2014 Writers Digest Poetry Awards. Pudding House Publications published his
chapbook Hawaii Slides. A member of the Midwest Writers Workshop, he lives in
Muncie, where he helps with several poetry events.