Remembering by William Stafford
When there was air, when you could
breathe any day if you liked, and if
you wanted to you could run, I used to
climb those hills back of town and
5 follow a gully so my eyes were at
ground level and could look out through grass as the stems
bent in their tensile1 way, and see snow
mountains follow along the way distance goes.
Now I carry those days in a tiny box
10 wherever I go. I open the lid like this
and let the light glimpse and then glance away.
There is a sigh like my breath when I do this.
Some days I do this again and again.
1 tensile: flexible "Remembering" from The Way It Is by William Stafford, copyright © 1977 by William
Stafford. Used by permission of Graywolf Press.
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