84. Out Cold [100 poems challenge]

84.          Out Cold

A glorious winter sunrise
Breaks through the ancient pencil pines;
Shards of brilliant dawn-light
Shimmer sharply on the frozen lake
And send long shadows stretching out
Across the ice-rimmed tussocks.

Newly risen after chilly night
I stand a moment near the edge,
Poised to photograph the glory
Of an iridescent morning.
But, barely warned, the scene goes black,
I topple forward, fall face-first
And finish prone among the frosty crystals.

19 July 2013

Comments: Back in 1988 I was on a hike with some teachers and students up near Cradle Mountain. There was a severe frost overnight, which resulted in ice as thick as snow on the ground when we got up in the morning, but the clear skies that caused the frost also gave rise to a bright wondrous sunrise. My enthusiasm for taking a photo was rather abruptly and unexpectedly overwhelmed by a particularly nasty flu bug that later hit some of the others as well. Fortunately I was far enough from the edge when I fainted — and I actually had a moment’s sensation that warned me that it was about to happen — that I didn’t face-plant into the water/ice of the lake, and I came around again pretty much as soon as I hit the deck. I was relatively fine for the remainder of the walk, but at least one of the students became very unwell and his gear had to be shared out among everyone else for the remainder of the trip.

Themes to come: 85. Spiral; 86. Seeing Red; 87. Food; 88. Pain; 89. Through the Fire

Explanation about the 100 poems challenge here.