Reading of: a dark snowy night in Colorado. written fall 2020

This is a reading of the prose I wrote after a traumatic event in the fall of 2020, while I was living in a bell tent by the la plata river, near hesperus, colorado. the land was magical, the springs special, the ice building up, the plants drifted inward. the piece is a creation of a character, an androgynous child who finds solace with wild creatures and a fire that stays lit in the darkest of the night, as I felt at the time my hearth gave me so much healing. This is an introduction to this child creature who runs with the wild beings, who has suffered a lot and looks for wisdom and mystery in the flames, the flames — a character in itself who shapeshifts and hold prophetic visions. Of course at the time, I didn’t know what it all meant but I wrote it, by my hearth, in my pajamas, after a really hard day where I felt betrayal, felt misunderstood, felt confused and astonished. The hearth kept me center, but soon after this, I also left my hearth, my cottonwood friends, not by choice—and the child by the flame suffered even more desperation. Perhaps the child’s story, sometimes a she, a they, a being-creature-morpher or he— has more story to tell. I don’t read my writings often out loud but this was practice for me.