For the love of gravity (for Johann)

this soil scientist walks with us,
early morning, mud cows grazing,
in silence over stones of words
quoting poems by heart.

offers us new eyes to behold
the land as a slow moving sea
where mountains rise on an in
and flatten on an out breath.

scoops up a handful of soil
shares there is more living matter
in his palm than people on the planet
and a myriad of decay and death too

we traipse though veld.
speaks. after fire the fynbos
seeds lie like stars
on black earth.
he asks what in us
needs burning?

then lies us down
on an outcrop pasture
backs pressed to the earth,
arms spread-eagled.

we imagine the globe turning
and we are suddenly below
suspended at the point
of free fall without parachute.

will tumble face first
into space and frozen waste
if the earth does not
through attraction
hug and wrap us
in its grave love.