He carries the weight of ages in his form,
a presence shaped long before our time.
Once brought to the edge of extinction,
he endured, survived, and came back fierce,
and the land remembered him.
From that memory, he returned.
The herds grew again beneath Yellowstone skies,
breath rising in quiet defiance
against the forgetting of time.
Winter comes for him without mercy.
Wind scours the plains,
ice tightens its grip in wind and negative temperatures,
and still he stands,
fur rimmed with frost,
unyielding as the ground beneath his hooves.
He is not merely surviving.
He is evidence.
A living testament to what the wild can reclaim,
ancient, immense,
and still standing.
Image captured in Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, 2018
Canon EOS 7D Mark II
Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L IS II USM Lens