Destinations are not merely geographic,
The right moment is ripe for arrival
Space-time brings us back to the future
In which it is always Opening Day

Psyches have been pummeled, hope
Lost, understanding scrambled, vision
Blinded by an eclipse into which we cannot
Help but stare like the gapers we could be

Demonizing enthusiasm might have gotten
Us here, an effort to be cool and detached
Took us out of the running in a race in which
It was important to be psychotically enmeshed

Or maybe the influx is of the wrong kind of stoke,
The kind that can be bought and directed and
Demanded instead of absorbed, chased, shared
With close strangers and strange friends

Perhaps it was the whirlwind of communal and
Personal despair that sent the flakes flying off the
Ridge into the late fall early morning sunshine
So that they caught the rays in the right fashion

Rounding the bend, the confluence of snow crystals
And light was illuminated into the most startling
Spectrum of color, an omen, a portent, a needed
Blessing – a Snow-bow!

Buckling my boots, the residual image leached
From my optic nerves down into my bloodstream
Where it carried into each cell of my being
Radiating reassurance and inspiration

Thus fortified, I shouldered my skis and ambled
Into town, elation on my countenance and sun in
My face, a return to that very specific
Rhythm that sets the beat of my heart

In the expressions of my friends and on the smiles of
Familiar faces I saw reflected that same snow-bow,
As if we were mass participants in a great ritual,
A collective cleansing of the fall’s mental debris

The same upward spiral that catalyzed the snow-bow
Was a driving force on the mountain riders, each giggle
Infectious, an epidemic of relief and relaxation,
Metastasizing into the happiest of conditions

Loosened and limbered by hearty chuckles, even the
Season’s first turns felt automatic, right, good
In a way that most had not felt in weeks or months
Zooming to and fro with the abandon of children

Chairlift banter was spirited and optimistic, closing
Day vibes but gilded with anticipation, plans being
Hatched, acquaintances being made, hugs aplenty,
A veritable maelstrom of outrageous joy

In a world divided, the commonality of our passion
Unifies us, kindred in our appreciation of the sheer
Absurdity of sliding at high speed on frozen water,
Those very lattices that begat the emblematic snow-bow