upon return

when i re-enter, alone, the city's crush
and its chaos of noise
and the fury of traffic surrounds me,
may i, above that hammering confusion,
remember sky and mountain slopes
where the herds are still descending homeward.

may my courage be like those rocks
and the shepherd's day long work seem possible to me
the way he drifts and darkens, and with a well aimed stone
hems in his flock where it unravels.
with slow and steady strides, his posture is pensive
and, as he stands there, noble. even now a god might
secretly slip into his form and not be diminished.

in turn, he lingers and moves on like the day itself,
and cloud shadows pass through him, as though all of space
were thinking slow thoughts of him.

spanish trilogy (iii)
rainer maria rilke