Rosary

 Although I'm not Catholic, I purchased prayer beads a while ago. I find them helpful for structuring my prayer life, but don't use them every day. 

Recently, in working on a poem I had started many years ago, I found a connection between the rosary and footprints in the snow on the lake. Here's what I came up with...

ROSARY

 I still can see his

footprints in the white expanse of snow

that lies between the shore and the island.

 For a bird riding

the north wind,

this trail must resemble the

beads on a string,

a rosary; 

even,

measured,

a circle around the tiny ledges

and back to land.

 

 How could one know if

each step was weighted

with cares

that pressed him against the ice,

or threatened to stop him in his tracks.

 

 Perhaps,

as a rosary,

each one was a prayer

lifted and held up,

every move a cry for grace,

a march in the twilight of the world,

to find where the light is best.

 

 What I see is a steadfast path

that led away,

and then,

returned

to home again.