Head Down, Chin Up - May 14, 2025

I walk and watch my long-shadowed

steps lead me down the sidewalk

as only my sneakers press

on the point of contact

the ground - where gravity

disposes of its victims,

the castoff place for everything

animate and inanimate

that exists above it

there are no exceptions

except birds who stick to trees

who eventually lose the fight

touch earth, and become it

though it is possible there is

one thing in us that rises as

we die, pulled by something more

weightless than we are and headed

for who knows where

maybe to the place

where hope is directed

where love or gratitude

wants to go

just non-stop

and going all the way