HEADWATERS
I made a large mistake I left my house I went into the world it was not
the most perilous hostile part but I couldn't tell among the people there
who needed what no tracks in the snow no boot pointed toward me or away
no snow as in my dooryard only the many currents of self-doubt I clung
to my own life raft I had room on it for only me you're not surprised
it grew smaller and smaller or maybe I grew larger and heavier
but don't you think I'm doing better in this regard I try to do better
Voigt, Ellen Bryant. Headwaters : Poems. First edition. .
New York : W.W. Norton & Company, 2013
Buy it here.