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Force Majeure
Susan Blackaby

Ah, the weighty matter of gravity:
Like the stern uncle or beady inquisitor,
it keeps us in our place.

More or less.

It seems agreeably complicit during
take-offs, for instance, and capable
when it comes to keeping things aloft—
owls, soufflés, pathogens—but capricious
and unruly on the unexpected descent.
(Stairs, obviously. Also ice.)

Occasional tumbling underscores its power and purpose.

Not to be trifled with, it wrangles galaxies,
squeezes stuff into stars, heaves waves onto
beaches. It coaxes blood through 60,000 miles
of capillaries, veins, and arteries as a
matter of course and yet is always ready

for the other shoe.

—
Susan Blackaby is an Oregon children’s book author and winner of the 2011 Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry. Dabbling across genres in children’s literature is familiar ground; wandering beyond those boundaries is a relatively recent and uncharted adventure. Her work has appeared in The Gold Man Review and VoiceCatcher.

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Have you read these poems:
For My Father by Melanie Green
A Song Too Soon by Michael Salcman

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