Poem: Galileo, Galileo

This is an unpolished poem based on a true story.

-
Galileo, Galileo

I hope I never get this page:
Your patient jumped out the window.
They are resuscitating him downstairs.
By downstairs, anonymous meant sidewalk
where this Zeus dethroned, failed Icarus
learned clouds are less dense
and sidewalks denser
than flesh

denser than muscle and bone, all those things
surrounding an organ I do not understand.
For what flit through his brain
that crucial moment,
which images flashed before his eyes?

I talked to him an hour prior
and he asked for an apple.
I did not relay this request to the nurse
or dietician or cafeteria.
I didn't think an apple would have averted suicide
but it was a last meal I denied.

Five children, that's what struck me
though in the debriefing
the man with the piano tie said
sometimes, five children
is five too many.

How did he go through the glass?
Did he ascend, an angel deferred?
Did he dive with purpose
or teeter off the edge
or fall back first, arms spread eagle?

Galileo, Galileo.
He tossed the chair first
then became the chaser
a drink that sobered many an Aristotelian,
changing the course of history.

To be honest,
I wish there was something wrong
the day we met,
wished he had mentioned a shadow
or had a chorus of voices
or a loaded gun in his pocket
For how could it be that there were no signs
that I missed nothing
that fate like gravity, like science and history
finds any response of apology
or guilt wanting.

You wrestle my pager from me,
tell me to go home.

Galileo, Galileo,
Good night.