I Understand

by Ksenija Spasic

While I’m on the bus
watching the pines volta with the sun in water,
I understand why you want to live here,
under this unhazy sky.
Even though your wit must
stoop to kindness
in a small city where people know your name,
but not the names of the books you’ve read,
where all surprises are in the forest
and the stores on Main Street
close if we stay in bed too late.
I understand
when my eyes span the half-frozen lake
glowing with the sky’s deep, perfect gradient,
darkening slowly enough
to be watched for hours.
Islands of ice
become islands of earth
and one small star shivers near the shore.