every heavy step
an act of resistance
against the indefatigable force of gravity

— hell on the knees —

why does everyone think coming down the mountain
is better than going up,
as if gravity were doing one a favor

the desire to live high in the mountains
with stunning beauty on view everyday
is one of those romantic notions
that reality pummels
and robs of its lunch money

i’d say something about everyone
who goes up a mountain having to come down,
but then I think about the stories
of the frozen corpses on Everest —
instead of coming down the mountain
they became stone-hard monuments to ambition