1.
I climbed a mountain
Last Thursday
Notice how I didn’t say hike.
There was no nice smooth rock to have lunch on,
no handsome scenery
and it certainly wasn’t sunrise.
But I ate the fake trail mix
and shoved through the cement
shoved through the cement
and then
above,
a glitch in the black
Blinding pinprick
I had to–
2.
Rewind that tape
It was laughter
of a forty people crowd,
televised
It was wretched coughing
frenzied squirrel squirming in the throat
swallowed whole–
3.
I climbed a mountain
this time to the very top.
To the round garden found deep in the clouds, reserved for the winners.
here I am
engraving your name on the bark of an oak tree,
infatuated
as crass as I can get.