Fire Touches Ice

Coyote pawprints stand on the edge of Yellowstone’s Mammoth Hot Springs, the travertine terraced formations gasping layers of boiling water heated from underground molten magma, dripping limestone, and beckoning back to earth’s creationary period as its thick steam rises like primordial ghosts to block the winter sunrise. The coyote witnesses what few humans ever see, the forbidden springs in deep winter lockdown, when the earth’s fire touches ice.