We’ve been falling for a few years now

It was funny how we’d spent all those years looking for the apocalypse
Since 2012 we’d been looking for it           we threw those parties       laughed it off

“Maybe the Mayans were right. Maybe the world really did end then, and we’re all just in purgatory,” Jackie would say, well before the incident, pontificating, waving her La Croix around with fervor but not spilling a drop. “Has anything felt real since 2012? Was 2013 a year, even? What did you do in 2013?”
I told her about my weekend trip to Chicago in 2013. “It was fun. I saw the Bean.”
Jackie was bothered that I disrupted her good purgatory story. “Maybe you didn’t see the Bean,” she said sulkily, “Maybe you dreamed it.”
“Maybe I… beaned it?”
“That wasn’t even funny. It wasn’t even, like, a thing.” Jackie crushed her La Croix can and pelted it into the recycling bin.
“Yeah, it sounded better in my head.”

I called Jackie first
When the bottom fell out
When we all got the elevator lurch, the one-less-step-in-the-staircase lurch
When we got that emergency alert on our phones:
           Something’s Happening We Don’t Know What But It’s Bad Okay So Get To Your Houses
”  Hey    “
“Oh thank god you picked up”
“Yeah, I’m here”
“Do you feel it”
“Of course I fucking feel it the world is dropping    through    space ” Jackie punctuated each of her words with silence, and within that silence I could hear that terrible sound of rushing air, which of course we were all hearing. It had a pitch to it, squeaky high, like when pianos fall in cartoons.
“Has anyone told us    Why or     How it happened?” I asked.
“I don’t know I haven’t exactly had time to like… turn on the news and watch Bill McFucking Nye explain it all. Especially since my TV jolted up so high when the fall started that the cord just came out from the wa   l     l            “
”   Jackie?” I pulled the phone from my ear. The line had gone dead. A few minutes later she sent a Facebook message: i guess a phone line somewhere just catapulted into space :))))

Our gravity field kept us tethered enough, I guess. We bounced around a bit. Through a little concentration and weights on our shoes, it was possible to stay grounded. I was looking for something at least a little normal to do. I went outside to check the mail. The wind was very strong and made my hair stand on end as I completed the short walk. With one foot in front of the other, I was able to do it. I opened the mailbox and a slurry of envelopes collided with my face. I reached and grabbed as many as I could, but most floated away. I clutched fistfuls of fundraising campaigns and catalogs to my chest and carried them inside, one foot in front of the other.

We adjusted to falling like to chilly water
We stayed inside
We got the diagnosis: indefinite
            Well,
             technically
            Headed for a black hole
                         But very slowly
                                   In the grand scheme of heavenly movement      (I guess)
(I don’t understand the science behind it)
(I’ve always been slow at science)
The government issued radio warnings: DON’T PANIC—STAY HEAVY—STAY CAUTIOUS
I called Jackie every day, once the phone lines got fixed
Jackie lives in California, she always assumed it would be earthquakes taking us out

“Do you think in Australia the wind presses down on them and they crawl close to the ground?”
After she asked that, I googled and turns out: yes!
Yes they do!
Their knees are very sore!

Now, five years after we started falling, people have gotten bolder
They’ll jump with purpose from the ground and fly through the air, flipping and shrieking
We’re living at terminal velocity
The sky is different now     it’s streaky now
And it’s also night all the time now
We left the sun behind
But we are still living
(Please don’t ask me to explain it. Remember the science thing I mentioned earlier)
Anyway, back to the sky
There’s an online poll to name the new constellation they found; “StarryMcStarface” is in the lead
And Jackie broke up with her boyfriend, which is good, because I am in love with Jackie
But I do live in Tampa
So distance is an issue
But I would move to California both to start a new life with Jackie and to avoid the Floridian snakes that, well, snake their way through the air, tasting the breeze, whipped about by the wind.
You’d think Florida couldn’t get much worse off, but now we have flying snakes.
So
That’s cool.

”       Holy cow, Jackie, look up.” We were on the phone. I stood out on my porch, one hand on the railing for balance. High winds today.
“Uhh okay let me walk outside                     uh       oh wow      yeah okay wow”
“Yea h”
“Ssssoo do you know what the fuck that is?”
I squinted up. It was a bit like looking straight up into snow or rain. The world was rushing by now. “I think we’re going faster      or passing a huge star system     or    both?”
“I don’t know why we’re the only ones being pulled in,” Jackie said. “The only planet. It’s not, like, God Punishing Humanity Or Something Like That right? Definitely not that.”
“We’ll find out when we get there   I guess”
“Or we’ll go splat!”
“Yeah”
I looked up at the sky and imagined I was the pilot of a spaceship. That’s what it looked like. Orange white and gold and impossible void, hurtling toward us as we passed.

“I’ll drive us home,” I said
Then ducked so as to avoid a snake hitting my face.
“Jackie”
I said
“The wind is much worse now
And we may not have much time
But I’ll start walking now
I’ll jump and crawl and do       whatever I have to do
Because who knows when the phone lines will shut off again, for good this time
“And I feel  so  very alone
And let’s just       go for it”
I watched the rushing sky and waited for Jackie’s reply
            It would not be hard to leave my home
            We’d fallen from our homes already
            Better to make our homes in people.
Jackie was quiet for a while
Then there came the sounds of rustling and zippers and things being stuffed into bags
“Let’s do it,” she said. “We’ll meet in the middle of Florida and California       how about Oklahoma”
“Like the musical ?” and my voice was hollow with relief as I said this.
We were going to         see each other and talk            and hold hands.
Maybe
I hoped so       !
“Yeah like the musical,” said Jackie and I could hear her smile

So we’ve been trekking
Slow going
Made less slow by the wind currents
When cell service works we talk on the phone
The blanket of stars overhead is twisting and complex
My fears for the future are also twisting and complex
The new normal includes the hollow-chest-head-rush of falling, constantly
Sometimes I imagine the planet wants to shake us off
So far I’ve made it to Alabama
My phone hasn’t worked for 30 hours now
It’s been raining buckets and rest shelters have grown scarce
And I know deep down I will not make it to Oklahoma
Because I’m tired
And the sky is ominous like the end of days oughta be
But I feel the peace and         stillness that come with knowing
That     I am         perpetually and constantly            in                  motion