A Graceful Addiction *(First Steps in Snow)

I bring with me-
(remember, I have lived
harder and harder,
complete and impossible)
I bring with me
a beautiful planet.

For my light, somewhere
in this room, I give
my eyes to science, all
exiled, dreaming, secret
and unfinished- a perpetual infant.

I understand (one brief,
necessary moment) the heart,
the land, this steaming
island as if I, once
belonged here.

In a lifetime, once or twice
the soul moves gently
in its shell.

I leave (a graceful addiction
to this world) unspoken words,
the language of my prayers-
who remembers in springtime
the first steps in snow?

*I bring with me
a beautiful planet,

for my light, somewhere
and unfinished- always
a perpetual infant,

I understand, as if
I once belonged here

the sadness of the feet
that made them,
those first few steps
in snow.