“There But For The Grace of Love Fly I” and “Gravity’s Rainbow”

By Norman Ball


There But for The Grace of Love Fly I

Reduce love in a dove
to a smidgen
and you risk being left
with a pigeon.


Gravity's Rainbow

Newton's flash required a falling apple.
How grave our loss if he'd been drenched
in Snapple.

This represents Norm's second tumble out of a first story window. Plans are afoot for a determined assault on the second floor at which time some cleaning lady better be there to save the Venetian blinds. Never satisfied with simply chronicling life's many inanities, Norm insists on wrestling them to the ground until, lying there drenched in a pool of sweat and blood, they sputter 'uncle' or at least 'Fatty Arbunkle' (he's partial to rhyme.)  By all accounts Norm inherited this obstinate trait from a grandfather who refused to address anything that was 'downhill from here' until it could be relocated to an impossibly upward slope. Stay tuned for the time Norm loses control of his vehicle and plows into a rare moment of lucidity.