The South Side of the Boulder

There comes a little space between the south side of a boulder and the snow that fills the woods around it.

Sun heats the stone, reveals a crescent of bare ground; brown ferns and tufts of needles, acorns, a patch of moss... bright green...

I sank with every step up to my knees, throwing myself forward with a violence of effort, greedy for unhappiness-

Until by accident I found the stone, with its secret porch of heat and light... where something small could luxuriate...

Then turned back down my path, chastened and calm.


-From Alana's Journal of Summer, undated, before it came to St. George and became the Journal of Summer.