Thursday, March 1, 2012

Mount Kilimanjaro

Written for Poetic Bloomings prompt: Where the rubber meets the road

You didn’t tell me,
Though I came right away
When you told me
That they would take us
To the summit of
Mount Kilimanjaro

We climb away
Past the shadows
Flickering with wildebeest
And skulking hyena
Away from their whimpering
Childish cries

Above the moody landscape
Of burnt grass and bamboo slopes
Golden-red in the pining sun
Past the stench of rotting carcasses
To the coveted top
Of Mount Kilimanjaro

How I wanted to see it
That white square
Transforming to a coral sea
As the sun sets
Above a layered landscape
Of muted blue and green

You told me once
That something foreign
Occupied the space in you
Once filled with life
…but you didn’t tell me
You came up here
To Mount Kilimanjaro
To die

Janet

I was stunned the first time I read Hemingway’s
The Snow’s of Kilimanjaro.


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I hope you enjoyed your pause on this porch and thank-you for your visit!