Keeping Things Wholes, "Mark Strand"

In a field

I am the absence

of field.

This is

always the case.

wherever I am

I am what is missing.

When I walk

I part the air

and always

the air moves in

too fill the spaces

were my body's been.

We all have reasons

for moving.

I move

to keep things whole.

Explanation:

This poem relates the book A Long Way Gone because Ishmael is missing his family and he is what is missing from his family. Ishmael and his friends are walking around trying to find his family. When the poem talks about when the air is being parted, that makes me think about when he is somewhere no one knows because when he steps forward the air fills back in like he was never there. When the poem also says, "We all have reasons/ for moving" that makes me think that there is always a reason for moving on, trying to win!