The Question

it once knew weight
flexed all gargantuan
it was Jupiter squatting on Mars
steel beams and packed mortar
of an unsinkable tower

and ancient beyond fossil
yet fresh as mothers milk
dripping the rosed nipple

it fell through the clouds
as thunder on the prairie
choking eucalyptus
and spanking
the oceans tame

it broke the back
of tyrannosaurus rex
and ignited silent volcanoes

weighing in on Roman councils
it mapped the wars of conquest
and bloodied the virgin sands

it did, once
and so much the more

but now, weightless it drifts
along the frozen shores
of the Milky Way
rootless and unseen
never finding fire

on moonless nights, though
it sneaks yet, dripping
from the stars
whispering along forgotten rivers
and abandoned windows

and on nights when the moon
tilts to quarter
it swifts the Brazilian rain forests
meanders the stoic alps
and tempers
the Arctic wind

oceans now disregard it
and congress gavel slams
too busy!

true poets have grown bored
and closed the book on it
and minstrels
have taken up trade

no longer can it purchase
or spend, or even
borrow, while volcanoes
spit dry sarcasm

it's there, still
among the stars
and swirling
the moon's tail
as a London fog
without a light

sometimes it sleeps
the Sahara where the sands
of spent hourglasses
sink in withered shame

but remain it does
as the ghost of an energy
without a matter

if you hushed
in the dark of night
dared the alone vastness
of a vacuum sky
and listened hard
way beyond your ears
-you'd hear it still
passing over in
forever not answered
fainter in wake
but unable to die

"Do you love me"

see,
she never replied