Shadow Tracker

    

    

Can it be only me,

adding my tracks in the field

to those of the vole and the deer

and every other warm-blooded creature

that fled across the snow?

My shadow extends

as the sun swings 'round,

my form a streak up the hill

and off into the silvered blue,

a tangent to the earth—

I raise one arm

to see it move,

and for all the world

it looks like a greeting

to infinity.