"The Smell Of Gravity"

Time to let the birds circle
    until the smell of land compels
    a gentle landing.  

Not just from the aromas of the
    flowers, animals, 
    and turning of seasons
    do these creatures respond.
But from the smell of gravity.
After all, their ancestors 
    the dinosaurs, 
    knew how to use gravity  
    to get what they wanted.   

Everything about birds bespeaks 
    the roundness of their world—
       their shape,
         how they fly,
            where they bathe,
               how they defend their young,
                  their very first 'housing'.

Every year they renew this sense of roundness
    through their ancient migration.
Filling their wings with the memory of the 
    planet's inevitable shape.

Long before when we humans were eliminating people
    who uttered the possibility of a round Earth,
The winged ones knew that the entire Universe was 
    ever-so-slightly 
    (though undeniably) 
    Round.

What do they think of our attempts at order and domination 
    through right angles? 
What do they think of our square homes?
How many of us will still be around to watch
    the birds circling,
    smelling their sense of 
    eternal gravity?

November 2009

 

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©2010, Michael Smolens