And this poem actually includes Selina, who
shows up a lot in the poses.
"Letter to Gravity"
"Never think I have forgotten your kindness,
nor has it escaped me that it comes
tendered without my asking.
Even in spells of counting myself bereft of all else,
I have not failed to find solace in the field of your force,
held fast to the mantle, stretched in corpse pose,
scanning the length of my body.
I wager existence on my weight pressing the mattress.
As I tell you this, I fall heavier still.
No countervailing aorta, no sulcus,
not subject to your pull, drawing me here.
No one else comes this close, but tonight Selina
told me how she reached for the doorknob
at the top of the marble stairs and her hand slipped,
and all the weight she gave to pulling
reeled her back, spine sudden on stone, and on a middle stair,
she managed once to brace herself,
but couldn't correct the trajectory.
Couldn't you let up just for a moment?
And as she told me the story, at each pause,
I wanted something to break her fall,
but she kept tumbling from one clause to the next,
until she slumped on the landing, and I see now,
this is how it is with you, even as I turn over
to you the task of holding my body down like this.
I do so, dead reckoning the terms of your gift
to matter, hammer, feather, you never make an exception."