up and up
(an ode)
i wish to climb and climb
having left this morning's
warm bed very early
and dragged myself up and out
into the morning dark
hiking up a 2.5 mile trail near
our valley with mountain
on one side and nothingness
on the other
at one stop for breath in
thin mountain air i peer
over the edge but cannot
see anything in the dark
i climb on slow steps
one by one matching
the morning's ratchet up
of light at the next stop
i can just make out the outline
of a public swimming pool
below out back a park hotel
still i climb one foot before
the other
in awhile i notice
in the receding night that
my breath begins to match
my pace and tension flows
out my shoulders and dissolves
into the path i am upon
an earthen sea and moving up
climbing climbing
mountain on one side
much below on the other
seen only when tentative
eyes adjust and i keep
climbing one foot before
the other into the light
