The Voice Of The Mountain

By Madison Simone

Shaky hands gripped the rocky mountain

Readjustments intertwined with faithful pleading

“Stay a little longer” 

Cried the valley of the shadows 

Barely off the ground the struggle

Numbed her knuckles and

She falls for the first time to the familiar

The shadows swarmed and choked 

Survival short inhale and hold 

So used to the hole closing she fought

Back to the mountain to bleed but breath 

Halfway to the top a shadow appeared at the foot

Too long she turned to look lassoed down into its arms

Hanged in the dismal valley waiting with wounded hands

Bound together begging for strength

Awarded with struggle 

Midway ascension to the mountain she cried

Desire and pain tearing at muscle and marrow 

Her body dropped at the top and bliss 

Blessed her broken bones 

Her sunkissed soul’s serenity  

“Help, help!” cried the valley from below

Not a shadow, but a fleshy face of familiar pain

“You have to climb!” she yelled down

She leaned towards the shadows that engulfed him

Extending her arm until one of his latched on

Back to the valley she ripped off the shadows

One by one as they reattached simultaneously 

Through the strangle she reached for his hand

“C’mon,” she said, “You have to climb”

“I can’t” barely left his lips before

The shadows closed in on him

Hoping they would spit him back out she waited

“I’m not leaving his heart stuck here,” she said

Until the mountain called her by her name 

The peak seemed an eternity away but his heart 

Nothing more than shadows that feed off lost souls  

She let go and looked up at the steep struggle ahead

Whimpered and waved at her finished work failed

And she chooses to climb again

By Madison Simone