PARABOLIC HYPERBOLE

“The Geometry of Gravity,”

reads the card of the museum’s display

where metal spheres are leisurely launched

along the lip of a parabolic funnel.

They eddy in a sort of perpetual motion,

their descent as imperceptible as inevitable.

Early on, they collide, kissingly,

as the longer rolling elliptically hoist themselves

into intersecting orbits.

Fresher launches define their fall

with ever increasing velocity

into accelerated, deeper orbits,

more stable, circular and unique.

Their increasing forward speed

diminishes their descent

till they blur into fevered coils

hung stationary at the funnel’s neck.

They vibrate aggressively

into ghosts that vanish into the mechanism

that invisibly replaces each along the lip

of this metaphoric model of the human condition.