Easter Moon, Rising

by Joshua Heston

Clear skies. Hot afternoon turning to cold dusk. Gravel clattered beneath my truck. It was getting late but not too late to be on the mountain. In the sudden, lingering twilight, sarvisberry blossoms became firework starbursts in white. Delicate new plum flowers trailed the mountainside.

From inside Bear Cave, the mesmerizing sound of water, slowly and surely dripping into a dense bed of dark fallen leaves. In the deep of the holler, previously dry rock beds are cold, clear brooks.

Climbing the steep, dry glade side, yellow hoary puccoon and purple mock verbena glow in ultraviolet hues. Silhouettes deepen. High atop the mountain, elephant rocks rise, primeval, moss-covered, eternal.

The valley stretches out below. Evening stars flicker into existance. Dusk can be a birth of sorts, as is dawn. But here, the birth is subtle. A moment of reflective calm. A reminder of all things things ending. Night deepens. Beyond the mountaintop’s scrubby black oaks, a full moon rises, peeking from behind black trunks.

In old mythology, Selene was the beautiful goddess of the moon, driving her chariot across the blustery night. As this Easter sky deepened to midnight, a breeze rustled the bare oak branches. Here, on the mountainside, it’s easy to again believe.

Photography by Joshua Heston. Drury-Minch Conservation Area, Taney County, Missouri. March 30, 2018.