Issue 14
Cold
Cecelia Hitte
Home
Welcome
Contents
Contact Us
Join Our Mailing List
What's New
Site Map
Site Search
So Cold, So...
Bird was almost home. Her feet were blocks of ice in the stirrups. Her fingers so numb she had to check that reins still looped through her gloves. At the barn she would dismount with painful care, clinging to the saddlehorn until she heard boots sinking into snow.
Drifts of snow muffled all sound except the creak of saddle leather and steady four-four beat of hooves on frozen gravel road. Bird pulled the scarf over her nose so steamy breath would warm her cheeks. The hills were shades, shadows and curves of white. Strokes of black and splashes of green hinted at maple and pine beneath the thick winter quilt. A solitary crow cawed and flapped away as she approached.
She neared a curve in the road where a ribbon of icy creek sparkled in the sunlight. She reined in her horse, delaying the moment when the house and barn would be in view.
~Cecelia Hitte
Cecelia Hitte is a graduate student in anthropology at Binghamton University. She grew up on a farm in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania.
© 2003 by Cecelia Hitte. All Rights Reserved.
© Copyright 2003 by Cayuse Press. All Rights Reserved.