we convince ourselves of what we need
allowing obstacle a rebirth as reason
the ground cracks and our body reacts
adjusting balance with footing, ear canal to cochlea
perspective shifts as focus clarifies, position of neck
to spine merges into planet's gyration
we orbit the occipital orb
the eyeball retracted by obstacle's incision
merged into our head our feet, somehow planted
on our eyes, as ground shakes we adjust our view
our heart follows close behind looking for an orbit
to call its own, gravity tells a story . . .
. . . has falling helped you see how to stand. will melting
away
cover improve intuition. porous like mine. I want to fall in
the nothing. find what's there. challenge my something
with surrounding nothing. maybe the certain. question the
maybe. enter the sweat of what falls before I catch it. attach
impulse to tributary. feather away grass from its skin. remind
each blade of my pores. my static charge of light and dusk.
magnetize distress. vanish emblems of pointed
palmistry
paining hull. esperanza savior. salivant sonority. have you
instincted the instants yet. stepped in line. what is the water
like when followed unwillingly. when skin is checked
by the surface of surround. the speed of slow.
who gets wet in the blade of water that cuts the wake.
is there friction with a name for blend. do I remove the
image before it envelops. rescue the outcome before it lands.
Copyright © 2007 by Edwin Torres. “The Law of the Apple” was originally published in In the Function of External Circumstances (Nightboat Books, 2007). Reprinted with permission of the author.