a friend tells me 

of her seasonal depression

how in the winter 

she simply wants 

to hide in her room

how maybe she should 

up her medication 

and when I hear this

I think about bears

for I am writing a story

from the perspective of the bear

and a large part of the story

is of him hearing the call

of what he calls his stone mother

the womb in the mountain 

of which he was born

and to which he returns each year

for aren’t we all wanting 

when the snows come

and the winds pick up

to bury ourselves

in some dim and hallowed place

to rest for a while

like the flowers do

within the soil

like the bears in the mountain

like the mountains 

beneath the snow

perhaps all our diagnoses 

speak more to symptoms

of existence than of illness

perhaps we are meant 

to want to burrow in winter

to step outside in spring

to stay up late in summer

to sit by the fire in fall

for despite all our distancing

we are still of this world

we still are prone to its pulsing

we still feel the call

of the mountain 

and of the blooming hills too 

perhaps we need only listen 

Alexander Shalom Joseph is an award-winning poet, writer and playwright from Gilpin County, and is the author of seven published books. You can find his work and more information about him at alexandershalomjoseph.com.