21.      Glacier river

I dreamt of you

in the southern mountain chain

where glaciers formed rock slide pools

and heat of the rocks and ice of the water

forced the body awake,

plunging forty two feet into the deep pool

and allowing the wind to help me inhale deeply on the descent.

I dreamt of you

watching the Southern Cross, then by the fire

and eating pancakes on cold mornings

with our bombillas and mate

smelling the trees and watching blackberry bushes.

And then we met.

Everything was from the dream-

the water, the fire, the rock, the wind.

The cold. The heat.

The feeling in the lungs when

                your warm chest is submerged in the ice,

                where breath stops temporarily

                heart stops temporarily

Fully committed to the jump.