A New Beginning By Mahtab Shabzad July-Sept. 1998 Lemar-Aftaab I stood outside in the freezing snow. My body shivered. My bear skin turning pale. My tears becoming ice. The feeling of nothing took me beyond this world and into the next. My breath, imitating smoke. A thousand needles poked at my peach skin, steady and constant, like a sewing machine pokes at fabric. My pink lungs turned deep rich red because inside my body I was warm. Inside, I had a forest that was on fire. The warmth of this fire came from the warmth of another soul. The snow poured and poured and buried me underneath it's milky white breast. All the while I stood still and patient awaiting the sun to appear. To melt the sweet fresh smelling snow into the luscious juice of life and into a new beginning. Seconds turned into moments, moments turned into hours, yet time didn't matter because it didn't hold any meaning. Time didn't hold any purpose, and I wasn't under its control. The hot, flaming sun burned in all it's beauty, it peeked its beautiful eyes and blinked it's eyelashes in key with every beat of a heart above the white hills. It's heat drilled through the snow like man drills into wood, yet the sound of nature was so much more pleasant. As the snow melted, I found that it had acted as a cocoon. I was now a mermaid. My body had adapted to its melting. Now I swam in a new ocean, a new life. I was a newly born child. My mother was the snow. It had given birth to me, it had helped me adapt myself to this ocean we call life. Copyright © 1998 Aftaabzad Publications. All Rights Reserved. May not be duplicated or distributed in any form without permission.