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Show Looking up he sees he is enbering bhe r i v e r ' s cub, bebween two sets of crumbling d i f f s shrugging. The rain has soaked through his jacket; his pants are wet through. Up d o s e the canyon is patterned with htLge streaks of red. SingLe trees grow straight up from the banks of the r i v e r , pressing against the wall of the d i f f like children Leaning against their mother, haLf Lost in the immensity of skirt and stone. The river winds around the d i f f to his Left, hugging i t in frozen stiLLness. On the right the Land sLopes up in undifferentiated angle of unalterable rhythm. he feeLs the rain against his skin now; he can smell the dampness of his own body. Fog is forming in the a i r , condensing into pockets thick and transient. The trees a Long the cliff rise in mist, the land, to his right rises incessant. Burdened by the new weight of the rain Rene stops for a moment. He is weLL into the Living scar that is the river canyon. I t is as if aLL around him e x i s t s both the heaLer and the heaLeds the Land, patient, communaL in i t s grip, many-voiced;; the r i v e r , incisive, singLe-minded, suLLen in i ts currented process carrying away bhe Land, a bransporber of bhings tangible and intangible, depositing a pebble here, then another further on downstream, shifting and shaping, aLways working with the same materiaL, Nobbing ever qualitatively different, onLy new additions traiLing away inbo the swooping curve of the evening. The frozen river is f Lowing water on top of snow, ^e continues skiing thinking In and out of things, he had a knife once but richard threw it into the pond i t was the knife his father gave to him the summer before he wenb away in bhe winter when everybhing wqs Locking before bhab richard and Lisa he saw bhem Locking from bhe bree bhab was in bhe summer boo and bhe buds were Leaves and much greener he Liked bhem bebber when bhey were buds sbiLL opening unLocking bhen he couLd see bhrough bhe sbiLL bare branches whab was bhe word?_ moire yes the buds were a moire in bhe summer bhough bhe Leaves bLocked everybhing except sometimes the wind bLew i t was bLowing then when he was in the tree watching them naked as the sky in the grass roLLing the Leaves were swaying and they were rocking he remembered the smeLL even now i t was rich and deep the smeLL of trees "That was where you were tripped up wasn't i t father? Tripped up in what |