wilderness Stargate
We - me and i trudged from base uphill at 10,000 feet
switch backing minimizing sharp15 percent grades
increasing pair, one heavy the other light
gravity an’ thin air
lungs burning fire on the center of my chest
my sputtering heaving gasps tear
my stinging nostrils, like parchment at 11,000
upward slant grasping for air holds
against the mass of gravity’s backpack boots and body
the emerald blue sky is my anchor, my lift
in mineral king’s mountain folds
800 feet unbroken incline mellows out,
chest’s bellows less, due more horizontal stretch meandering turnpikes, dizzying thin air altitude
shrubs rolling out threshold to alpine trees
deep gorge rocky banks idyllic hike
a fatal fall’s slip of the foot and 200 feet of instant death
to silver stream jagged below
trail ends at base of taller still, magnificent mountain
covered in gold velvet rock protrusions, embedded
crossing stream ’neath our feet
small headwater runs slow
headed to box canyon past cathedral granite bowls
whose towering 12,000 feet in sunlit snowy banks
create shadow nestled at their northern base,
a waiting cradle preparing for
winter’s newborn falling snow
mosses downy, cushiony steps of green sponge
trekking ’long meandering silent serpentine creek
northeasterly invisible arrow of travel, pristine pulse
living things, alpine flora, scattered birds flitting speak
searching winter’s september scarce bounty
of seed and sleeping bugs’ prey for hungry beaks
late autumn sun, bright as summer transposed on cold
clean reality so far away
so tranquilizing from raucous noise
of technical livings’ existence,
far distant land of electron
and machinery’s magnetic fields
pulsating fix on mere existence that never sleeps
due distraction’s onslaught
most times humans transfixed unawares asleep
deeper gorge lies ahead, wild gooseberries
dried hanging for me
westward turning point, follow the slope
yields for me its sobering silence
of noise detoxification at her every turn of incline
and slight declines
creating a virtual metaphysics realm entrance
porthole, high altitude wormhole,
cybergate escape into stargate
no return, no goin’ back
to cities of industries’ dull glowing red lights
maybe i’ll fall into that dimension’s maw
maybe a sojourner of like mind will encounter
the shell of my corpse after some winter’s thaw