Searching For Softness

'She couldn't find it...
Something was missing from within her, a softness she wasn't sure she had ever known. Now was the time to find it. When the wrens joyous song breaks the April showers and tiny tufts of newborn rabbit tails disappear in the booming hedges. Everything is sweet, everything is new.
So she walks amongst the hazey golden light that trickles down between the leaves. She aches for the softness she knows must be there. Maybe it will be the blushing pink of a long tailed tit or the first bells emerging from their winter sleep....but nothing, not a sound can be heard in the wood.
A slow, unsettling movement catches her eye. An old apple stump seems to be breathing. Then her eyes adjust to what she is seeing. Not soft, not gentle, nor kind or sweet...a snake. The silence surrounds as she sees the watching eye and dancing tongue. For all these feelings she is not disappointed, she is mesmerised. The snake slowly wraps her self around the stump, pushing aside dead leaves and twigs to reveal a white glow. Snowdrops in full bloom...in April. More white than the first February maidens. So delicately she wraps her body around them, embracing the hidden treasure. Woman and snake stare at one another for what feels like an age. The silence breaks as she hears the snake whisper....ssssoftnessss.
In time she realises she is alone with just an apple stump and a single snowdrop fading amongst the darkness.'