free fall.

when my great grandmother heard
we have artificial satellites
in space, she said
“I wonder what would happen
if someone were to shoot them.
would they just float around
with no tether
with nothing to bind them
waiting to explode
with no one to hear them
just a tiny speck
lost in space.”
and i remembered
a science class i once took,
that said the millions of objects
in space don’t float;
they’re pulled by the gravity
toward earth, but the earth keeps
curving away,
refusing to comply
and i guess what they’re really
doing is falling with nowhere to really go.
sometimes i wondered if that’s
what i was. with no force to guide
no path to follow.
but then you came along
and it was like whispering
into a soundless room
with my voice reaching
every nook and every corner
without me even trying
like tasting stardust for the first time
in a world bereft of the sun.
i had no one to tell me that
that was what an echo
was like.