More Poetry

Going Up

Photo By: Ryan Hechler

My feet ache and my lungs claw for air that isn’t there,
I hear the crunch of a dozen feet in the gravel,
But on mountain everyone is complacent in silence

My heart pounds in my head,
I can feel the pulse in my ears, its beat dances with my breaths,
One breath, two steps,
One breath, two steps,

One gasp, one step,
Two wheezes, one step, and the 4/4 rhythm of the beat,

The song of the trail,
The music of the trance,
Lost time,
Lost in the beat and the burn,

Physical universe,
Mountain cosmos,
The compass trail,

Going up.




The Last Stand of Ollataytambo


We who walked within worlds

One waning, one won

Well-meaning westerners wooed by these woeful walls

Lost in

Words
Or
Worlds
Or
Wars

Wrought with wrath

Fought with fire

Warriors of worth wreak the wretched

Written in war paint

Written in legend

Bow and quiver

Blade and bone

A lost waterloo

And we walk

Through its wake

Of
Words
Of
Worlds
Of
Wars

Wondering why was one world lost and one world won?