| Under the cold weight of snow, the earth will finally hibernate.
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| It is the miracle of winter. |
| Flakes fall as if they were sent to pause time
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| before the seasons begin again. |
| Some are clumsy, some are graceful,
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| but each knows its landing place on the earth
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| The only movement here is that of a young woman searching through the braided
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| pine branches for an opening. |
| Her white dress is camouflaged against the snow.
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| Lost in this dream chamber, she moves through the white powder,
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| running her hands through it to awaken her memory
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| Parting the branches, she follows an open path cleared before her,
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| swerving its way to a stone bridge adorned with icicles. |
| Someone is waiting
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| for her there, a gray figure, a stranger, watching her through the shower of
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| white between them. |
| They are uncertain of why they have come but they both long
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| to be here. |
| Although she cannot recognize his face, she knows him somehow.
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| As they stand together, a single ray of light grows from behind,
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| wrapping them in its warmth until they dissipate into it. |
| When she awakes,
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| a cloud of winter air still floats above her. |
| It was just a dream again
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| On this morning, a man awakes from the same dream, one that reoccurred so often
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| that he felt incomplete without it at times. |
| It haunted him. |
| When his eyes
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| closed, her face still appeared before him, but not one that he could recognize
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| His oldest memory was of being an infant sitting before his family,
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| unable to speak or walk on his own. |
| He cried for days and nights,
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| his small fists clenched, until one day he couldn’t remember why he was so sad
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| anymore. |
| Along with the other children, he learned to laugh and run again.
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| This became his new life, and everything before then seemed no longer his
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| The man watches swelling clouds from his window and cannot help but anticipate
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| the arrival of something today. |
| Bodies bustle their way past him as he sits
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| outdoors, but they are like shadows murmuring to one another. |
| They float by
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| unnoticed as his eyes only fall upon a young woman, dressed in white,
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| who stands behind the crowd. |
| He feels comforted, almost relieved by the sight
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| of her, and longs to be near her
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| Their eyes lock, a strange longing glance that could not be severed by anything
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| at that moment. |
| Her eyes are like two deep wells of stories, perhaps one he may
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| have heard before. |
| They appear dewy, prepared to overflow
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| In the distance, church bells ring. |
| The humming noise and motion of the world
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| seep back in to disturb their peace. |
| If she is a mirage, she will disappear
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| soon, he thinks. |
| But she remains there, motionless. |
| This time is not a dream
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| With a final glance at him, the woman slowly vanishes into the sea of bodies.
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| A steady downpour of snow ripples in the wind until he cannot see anything but
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| the movement of white. |
| Chaotic, like a surge of emotion, and yet pure, white,
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| and delicate, the snowstorm remains an enigma to him. |
| As he tastes the
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| snowfall, he sees a single ray of light piercing through a cloud,
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| and he cannot help but smile |