Page 98 of The Secret to Belonging

she’s right

it isn’t far

but you still fall

four times

tangle in poles and skis

lie in the snow like a snared animal

by the fourth time

you’ve learned how to align your knees

push on your poles to stand

slide your skis back into the narrow tracks

when you finally reach the cabin

you feel like a gold-medal Olympian

exhilarated and

exhausted

it takes all hands to dig a path to the door

Elinor hoists a norsk pennant

Bjørn starts a fire in the woodstove

Lise and Erik unpack the food while

you tuck bottles of beer in the snow to chill

by noon everyone is out in the dim daylight

gliding across the frozen tundra

you focus entirely on keeping your skis

in the parallel tracks

if you meet a moose, calls Erik

try not to panic

is he kidding?

a moose?

one time, he says

a moose swam across the fjord to Gledevik

and got stuck in town