Your bones belong in the soil, or so says
gravity as it pushes down on us all day.
Quite a lot of effort to keep humans
from floating away. & yet, gravity
teaches so many lessons, coaches so
many children in matters of risk,
does so much every day that it’s like
the opposite of Santa Claus, moving
from one person to the next, millions
every night, breaking their bones,
crushing their skulls. Somewhere else,
a child will fall from a tall deck to his death,
& somewhere else an adult will too.
The lesson is not for them. It is for
the families. When I got injured,
it was serious, & I was alone
most of the time. That’s how
I knew the lesson was just for me.
Now, when I sit, I imagine where
the back brace once was, & adjust.
If God broke my back to fix my posture,
imagine what He’ll do to you.
Tommy Sheffield’s work has appeared in Ghost City Press, Ucity Review, and Adelaide Literary Magazine. He is the author of the poetry collections From Whom We Trace the Bones, Where God Has Gone, and These Things Are Often Sealed Within. He serves as an editor at Stillhouse Press.