Monday, December 10, 2007

The Great Reveal

It seems very long ago—a long, long time ago—that I wrote of the Big Concealment, and now we've come again to the Great Reveal. When the bones of the land are laid bare, and the first snowfalls limn (come ON, you've got to love "limn") earth's contours. You can see your neighbor's house and the smoke from his chimney, but it doesn't make you want to move, à la Daniel Boone...no, it makes you want to split wood and twist newspaper and make a fire your own self, settle in with a book.

The fog lifts from the highlands in the morning and as it does you can see through the trees at the edge of the road, across the river, to the rocks on the hills on the far bank etched in snow.

In the afternoon, of course, it's all hid, because the time's all screwy. And also the windows at the coffee shop down the street steam up. On Fridays there's live music there and open mic nights and poetry and steamed milk, and all that humanity clumping up turns the thing into a single soft white lightbulb, electric and steamy as you drive past, home.


4 comments:

wcs said...

My dico says it comes from latin through old french to middle english.

Must be a word used by the arty folks. I'll bet Amy H. uses it all the time. ;)

ALF said...

Found your site from dooce's - just stopped by to say hi!

Bill Braine said...

Well, howdy. Thanks for commenting. WCS, did you say your dico can talk? Tell me that's French for something pleasant.

wcs said...

Dico ---> short for dictionnaire.

I'm not that vulgar. Except when I am.