winter stranger
in my dream last night the snow came down hard. all of the colors outside were washed out by the whiteness that filled the air. from the window the distance grew smaller. i hiked up a spiraled hill and ended up at a stranger's cabin. a boy my age came outside to greet me with pale blue marble eyes and a strawberry stained mouth. he smiled like he knew me or wanted to know me. he slept in a tent outside and washed his body in an aluminum basin. he said he wandered for miles along these hills and i pictured the pace at which he walked. he said he knew the trails so well that his feet couldn't balance on cement ground even if he tried. there was something relaxing about the way he said this. to where i wanted to kick my shoes off in the muddied dirt and walk barefoot with him until my feet became planted in the soil.