Mayita Mendez, Mists of Stamp River, 2021 (Artist Website, Instagram)
Photograph
III. Precipice
The sky swings wide open
& sun knifes the reservoir
a hundred metres down,
straining the mist
of grit & silt.
Tapestried
from one end to the other,
it quarries every
shade of light,
its creamy sheen a mirror,
the trees suspended
by their roots.
We skirt
the reservoir & ascend
to the dinosaur tracks.
Soon, teetering
on the cusp
of all we don’t know —
as if we could bring back
their glimmering.
My daughter
stirs in her carrier,
her breath fogging my ear.
I puncture the snow
with my poles.