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Show Inside the c i r d e tiny staLactibes of snow poinb inward, dripping, moving away from bhe f i r e ' s heab. ^he snow beneabh his feeb slowly grows ice hard as it re-freezes, escaping now the direct heat of the fLames. The c i r d e of the f i r e has expanded to the wood piLe, undermining i t, when the f i r s t f l a t streakings of grey appear in the eastern sky. The f i r st smudges of Light make the f i r e Look smaLLer, Less consequential against the backdrop of g r i t t y , charcoaL-stained snow. The arena of his night begins to show i t s e l f , Like a chiarascuro sketched from the darkness, haLf-Lit. The sky is a high grey smear, and i t is no Longer snowing. The sun is rising, but not visibly, the Light coming from the darkness, as if some cosmic magician has given his cape a shake and aLL the dust of the ages has fiLtered sLowLy to earth, fiLLing the a i r with a mysterious gLow, caught in the trans- Lucent web of a new day. In the Light now, he r i s e s and straps on his skiis, Leaving the f i r e 's c i r d e , once more onto the frozen r i v e r . The fury of the storm has passed now and he can see what yesterday was hidden from him: the river twisting and turning into the jumbLe of forest ahead; behind him, upstream, the Larger mountains of the Penobscot Range, sbanding in grey-green sbiLlness jusb be- Low the ceiLing of douds. The wind bLows up in his face, warmer, incongruous coming across the snow covered Land. He sbands, paraLLeL to the river and sLightly above i t on the frozen bank, his skiis pointing downstream. Ahead of him and to his Left he watches as the Land begins in s l i g h t l y tiLted Low Lands running haLf-way across his f i e ld of vision in a singuLar, anguLar sweep, up- until, suddenly i t stops, dropping abruptly a tremendous distance, straight down, to the r i v e r . Then, immediately on the other side of the river, continuing the same angle as before, as if the river had been an insignificant obstacle and bhe Land a runner, barely breaking sbride, ib swoops up again, awesome, finalLy iuttinsr into the thick shouLder of the Penobscots, And everywhere, aLL the LL |
