Within the valley of Death Hollow
Sprinkles rare exposure to straight sunrays,
Unblocked by towering canyon walls,
Walls that limit heat and penetration,
As the hikers move in and out of forty-degree pools of stagnant water.
The best moments in life
Are the ones that try your resolve,
That pushes you beyond your capacity for coldness,
A shocking intercourse of near freezing temperature,
Intruding your core and shutting down command; ability.
Fighting against hyperthermia, the limbs must swim, generate heat, and cannot stop, even for a second, for that is when death will take over.
Once out of the pools, the dripping wet hikers’ blue toes and fingers,
Have no more to give, but they must. They have to keep going as the
Cool winds freeze the water droplets on their skin.
Where is heat?
Where is a respite from the torturous cold?
And there, out of place, out of context,
Is a giant black boulder, if placed by God.
Somehow, the boulder has captured the heat from the
Elusive sun, and the hiker can steal the heat from the boulder,
Until forced to swim through the next pool of possible death.
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Sun Warmed Boulders
by Stephanie Daich
