WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN: A POEM

I taught myself how to juggle when I was a teenager. I came across some old juggling balls and thought to myself, I should figure this out. It wasn’t an instant accomplishment but one thing was for certain, no matter how I attempted to successfully accomplish my goal whenever I threw the balls in the air, they came on down, always, sometimes into my hands and sometimes onto the floor but they always came on down. I started juggling with any objects in my reach, wallet, keys, phone, cigarettes, whatever! I’d juggle it, and the same thing happened, no matter how hard I threw the objects, they came right back down. I suppose life hasn’t been too much different.

WHAT GOES UP MUST COME DOWN

They told me

What goes up

Must come down

Something to do with gravity

I’m losing any clarity

Throwing a ball around

Now it’s stuck in a tree

I suppose

It will come down

Eventually

Some laws

Aren’t supposed to break

So I’ll stand and wait

It’s wedged in a groove

Refusing to move

Despite the pouring rain

And the rolling hurricane

I’ve waited so long

I’m starting to forget my name

I waited till the tree surgeon came

Cut down the tree

Just to return the ball

To where it used to be

But as the tree did fall

The ball became free

It bounced and it rolled

Down to where the river flowed

Onward the ball did float

All the way out to sea

Just because it went up

And it came down

Doesn’t mean

It was returned to me