The Two-Body Problem
Brandon Thurman's poem "The Two-Body Problem" appears in Issue No. 56: Expression.
________
BRANDON THURMAN
The Two-Body Problem
I can’t seem to remember
the last time I prayed
that wasn’t merely a reflex.
The doctor’s cold hand
& hammer making
my scrawny knee hiccup
was my first time seeing
how the body can know
what its bearer doesn’t.
When I told you I was glad
our parallel lives had intersected,
you said something about infinity,
something about the earth’s largest machine,
buried beneath the border of two countries,
hurtling one proton against another,
again & again, bent on finding a particle
they call God. I don’t know,
you ramble on sometimes,
but tonight, when I sat at the table
between you & our boy,
I wanted to close my eyes,
hold your hands, & whisper, thank you
to no one at all. I remembered
then what it was you said:
even parallel lines intersect
at the line of infinity,
bent towards each other
by that invisible weight.
________
BRANDON THURMAN is the most orthodox iconoclast and ordinary queer you’ll ever meet. He’s the author of the chapbook Strange Flesh (Quarterly West, 2018). His poetry can be found in The Adroit Journal, Beloit Poetry Journal, Nashville Review, RHINO, and others. He lives in the Arkansas Ozarks with his husband and son. You can find him online at brandonthurman.com or on Twitter @bthurman87.
Photo by Oana Hodirnau on Unsplash.
3 Responses
Marcia Hurlow
Headspinning and beautiful poem! Thanks for this uplifting moment, Brandon!
Bruce Meredith
A beautiful inviting poem, open to so many interpretations. Really well-done!
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Ruminate Community
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The Waking is an online literary magazine and a part of the Ruminate creative community that houses high-quality literary writing about what it’s like to be human. We are interested in short-form prose and image-text hybrid work. This art can be beautiful, it can be strange, we just ask that it feels true.
Janet Ruth Heller
August 17, 2020
This poem is very moving. Good relationships are hard to find and very precious. Thank you for posting this poem!
Sincerely,
Janet Ruth Heller
website is https://www.janetruthheller.com