Sledding is Good People

Sledding creates a communitas
of the purest kind of love
and the truest kind of joy.

Couples of all ages, families of all styles, college kids and gangs of friends
come to the bright hill of fresh snow with our innertubes, rafts, saucers and sleighs,
sleds of cardboard and cookie trays, anything potentially slick

and whip down the hill
like bullets, like tumblers, like pilots
backwards, on bellies, in tandem and solo,
laughing, screaming, rolling, colliding,
eating snow as we go
all the way down
then slipping and sliding, digging our toes
all the way back up the hill
for more and more
smiling at each other as we pass
watching each other do our tricks and crashes
ooohing and wowing and ouching and grinning
our frozen wet chins, waving wet mittens
becoming familiar with each other--
the boy in the red coat, the three who always link arms,
the woman who sleds backwards with the camera
filming the people sledding towards her,
the kid who always aims for the snow ramp
the girl who stands on her sled, snowboard-style

everybody of every age experiencing the bliss
of untethered happiness
dazzling sunshine reflecting the sparkles of life
crystallized in the clear eyes of recognition
that each one of us here
shares the singular purpose
of experiencing exhilaration
the clean, warm facts of cold, hard fun
found in the friendly faces of everyone

on this chilly, sunny hill
where we guarantee for each other
the return to personal innocence
born through a communitas
of pure love and true joy.

--Diana Tigerlily