Ascension (December 31, Thinking About the Dead)

Some lights aren’t shining now—

people who were beacons to me.
It’ll soon be New Year’s Eve, but I’m lying low

today. I shoveled the snow
and moved the car to a cross-street.
The LEDs were shining,

along with a dim glow
in my own soul, as I used my feet
for snow-plows. Now inside again, sitting low

to the floor in my old
Ikea chair, with the new
foot-stool I got for Christmas, light shining how-

ever it does as I pass around
the horn where the dog star
glowers and it’s too hot to go

outside. Thinking about how
things are with me—
praying that the people who are stars to me
may rise up from below.