the top of our world. photo by Bob.
Outside the warm cocoon of a cabin
Where tender light soaks into log walls
And the woodstove is humming a gentle tune
I step
Affronted by the cold and blackness
My breath is halted for an instant
Overwhelmed by dark and silence
A great and powerful nothing
The void of suppressed sound and movement
Bearing down on me with a pressure that buzzes in my ears
Until my eyes slowly adjust
And the world widens
Horizons expand
Growing to infinite
As the stars begin to reveal their depth
And the silence from the muffled river a quarter mile away
That which I don’t hear
Because of the snow
The ice
The distance
Space which separates
And draws us together
A few steps away from the house
And the light from the windows
Glows pale golden rectangles on the snow
Warm and yellow and welcoming
There
Here
Inside
Outside
Is all for a moment
One
And I am glad to be out here looking in
In there where we are wrapped in cradling arms
Out here where I stand in her dormant womb
So small
A lullaby before settling into sleep