First Snow at Heather Camp, Hidden Lake. Eagle Cap Wilderness . . .
On the road in the American Northwest. [click photo for next]

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See also my new quartet of poems
from the ON THE WAYSIDE stream

SISYPHUS & THE MOUNTAIN

Sisyphus rolls his spirit up to the top

of the mountain, where he lets it fall.


It shatters below into a thousand pieces.

He then proceeds to put the pieces

back together with the quiet

care of a Swiss watchmaker.


"See this crack? It always breaks there. It's

something present from the past"


Sometimes, the cracks just disappear, as if healed;

Othertimes, they repeat, time and again.


Sisyphus rolls his spirit back up the mountain

and lets it fall back down again.

It shatters into a thousand pieces.

He then puts the pieces

back together again, with the quiet

care of a Swiss watchmaker.


How many times has he done this?

"I don't count. Each time is the first.

Each time, the last."




LAST MAN ON EARTH


First rule: don't let the fire go out.


Prime possessions: Swiss army knife & that

stainless steel pan over there.


Most important pastime: sending smoke signals

on windless days to potential last women.


Key skill: using your ice-axe as you always have:—

digging for roots.

IX.27.2009,
Heather Camp,
Eagle Cap Wilderness

Please preview my on ON PATHS,
a collection of 82 shorter,
single-image highcountry poems

Please visit my MOUNTAIN WATER Gallery—the best
of my flowform texts & photography . . .
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