Here is the boy
kicking a worn hackeysack
in a field,

his shirt off
to feel the sun on his skin,
to show the world

his chest and
narrow waist, his legs
and back still feeling

strong,
when physics happened,
as suddenly as a torn

cartilage.
His quest to understand
how two bodies

might come together, how
one life might discover
its inner gravity,

was ignited the way a sun
is born, with radiant heat
and light,

propelling him up
and away from his small world
into a dark and complicated

universe.