Poetry Monday: Tracks in the Sand

Tracks in the Sand

For anyone, I am a substitute.
When you were five, kicking the leaves
for a fire, I was you, and the leaves, and the fire.

Or you watch a bomb test--how it mushrooms
over the flat--I am an atom
with the others, and mark you and am your scar.

For anyone else I take the next step
and another, become the road and the sky,
and look back where we were, those tracks in the sand.

For anything lacking--for trees, for rain,
for salvation--I am learning both sides
of the window, and standing between, turning to glass.

--William Stafford