With each step and practice

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With each step and practice
as if escape is possible
—the same knack the sun
till this flickering hillside
weakens and goes out, the light
turning to ash —I dance

to push this light into a circle
into my arms, carry it back
like a table—how else
can I hold in my hands
the fire not yet air, not yet dry.

I practice risk! make believe
there are leaves, joke about from somewhere
bringing in more leaves :each step
deeper into open sky and my heart
not yet the warm rain that passes
mouth to mouth among the dead.

You see it all! each footstep
bending the Earth closer
stroking the soft dead
not yet powerless to answer underwater
—you watch a simple dance, a climb
taking hold and deeper, deeper
a great calm
walking its way out.