des morceaux

my breath came out in a foggy clot as I reached a plateau in the vertical trail and my feet made comforting thumps on the packed earth beneath me. i felt more stable here than on the rocky slope i had just ascended, which had winded me, scratched me with its jagged corners and jutting edges. it was soft here in the misty grove and i felt closer to the reason i set out on this path some hundred feet below. the trees stood quiet and i felt their wisdom as it seeped through the damp air into my clothes and my hair. they held such a strange affection in me that i wanted to embrace their rugged trunks to be sheltered by the loving tenderness of their boughs. i recognized my naivite but was not embarrassed for they smiled at the youthful innocence it was rather than condescend to me for the ignorance it showed. i walked down the path between the walls they created and felt hopeful because they knew where this path would end.