Country Winter

Living in the big farm house, it was a holiday or some special occasion, ma cooking up a storm in warm kitchen and I go outside with my 3 brothers, big drifts of snow in the woods across the country road, there's an open clearing there, too, and I get myself all wet and messy hurling myself into clean white powder in ecstacies of cold discomfort, don't even recall what the boys did, I was covered in snow, moving madly to some inner rhythm, knowing warmth and good food awaited me, like small animal in mindless happiness, the white snow, my brothers near in case of monster attack, ma and my sisters in the kitchen, no chores for me, just snow and movement, spaciousness of time, oh joy.