On the Drive to a Winter Morning Swim

by Carolin Messier

 

Lively chatter from the ladies in the front seats
failed to penetrate my haze
as cityscape changed to landscape and back again,
pale noise, foreign sounds
against a monochromatic world while the sun still slept.

White houses, all muted in shadow to dove grey,
charcoal pavement-
both ahead and behind, from driveway, to street, to bridge
mountains, lake, and sky,
each an indiscernible mass draped in pre-dawn darkness.

Thirty minutes of movement through turquoise water
rhythmically and silently,
awakened my mind from foggy depths, evolved its view
from stressful worries
to the vision and opportunity of change.

Outside, the morning’s palette brightened with my thoughts
from stern and sullen grey
to tender shades of icy blue, gold, apricot, and rose;
impressionistic,
these are the hues of hope and possibility.

Both magnificent in their pacific splendor
the mountains stood then
in backlit silhouette, full of solidity and grace
nodding reassurance
at my decision born from feeling and experience.

Invisible crystals in frost-filled air refracted light,
muted edges,
as demure Mount Baker bid good day ‘cross violet glass
to virile Mount Rainier,
they, the duality of vulnerability and strength.

He was bathed in a golden halo full of self-possession,
commanding the horizon.
She wore her pure white robe and swam in watery tones
full of femininity
simply being, needing nothing more to prove her worth.