A Physics

Lower Yellowstone Falls

A Physics

When you get down to it, Earth

has our own great ranges

of feeling - Rocky, Smoky, Blue -

and a heart that can melt stones.

The still pools fill with sky,

as if aloof, and we have eyes

for all of this - and more, for Earth's

reminding moon. We too are ruled

by such attractions - spun and swaddled,

rocked and lent a light. We run

our clocks on wheels, our trains

on time. But all the while we want

to love each other endlessly - not only for

a hundred years, not only six feet up and down.

We want the suns and moons of silver

in ourselves, not only counted coins in a cup. The whole

idea of love was not to fall. And neither was

the whole idea of God. We put him well

above ourselves, because we meant,

in time, to measure up.

~ Heather McHugh ~

(Hinge and Sign: Poems, 1968-1993)


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