TWO MILE CLIMB by Tyler Newlin
The two mile climb stretches out in front.
The palms of hands reach parallel mid-back.
The heat of the day gives way
To impending shadows and threatening rain.
It is time to begin:
Time to breathe,
Time to moan,
Time to scream.
It is time to lash out! Time to infuse,
Time to meld with the earth by yielding to it.
It is time to fall in love again; time
To believe.
The two mile climb reaches for sunset.
Steps like hoof beats, like metronomes,
Keep time,
With drumbeats and chords and patchwork pock-marked
sun-slopped concrete.
Powerless to stop the
Creaking, cracking, splintering of bones.
So many bones that cry out from behind the demagogs
of footsteps over Hard Rock,
“stop… Stop… STOP! Please stop.”
But it won’t and can’t and
Somewhere far, far away a voice that
Says, “I will not quit.”
Screams, “I… will not quit!”
And it echoes down, down two mile climb.
Sun beats faces in their places,
And earth pushes up knee-bend slopes
Toward clouds and heaven and sweet
Sweat drops rip through bird legs.
Confidence waning as it departs over western hills,
Threatening darkness, cold and lonely.
It is the same the heart and lungs that hurt as
they heave what they need,
And beg for breaks and dive-bar cigarette smoke.
Puffs of air, blades of grass
The multitudes abound because they have to.
A big patch lies here and there
All along the two mile climb.
Twilight has found the two mile climb
Somewhere along the way down.
The cooler air is chilling the sweat dripped
Down brows of brown, black, yellow, white.
This small victory; this little perseverance
Shared with the air, the grass
The lungs heart concrete sweet sun darkness:
Shared in every step; every mile.
In every house a better one sleeps tonight,
And waits for the next time
To bring feet to meet with the holy concrete
(Down!) Down the two mile climb.
//ww
The palms of hands reach parallel mid-back.
The heat of the day gives way
To impending shadows and threatening rain.
It is time to begin:
Time to breathe,
Time to moan,
Time to scream.
It is time to lash out! Time to infuse,
Time to meld with the earth by yielding to it.
It is time to fall in love again; time
To believe.
The two mile climb reaches for sunset.
Steps like hoof beats, like metronomes,
Keep time,
With drumbeats and chords and patchwork pock-marked
sun-slopped concrete.
Powerless to stop the
Creaking, cracking, splintering of bones.
So many bones that cry out from behind the demagogs
of footsteps over Hard Rock,
“stop… Stop… STOP! Please stop.”
But it won’t and can’t and
Somewhere far, far away a voice that
Says, “I will not quit.”
Screams, “I… will not quit!”
And it echoes down, down two mile climb.
Sun beats faces in their places,
And earth pushes up knee-bend slopes
Toward clouds and heaven and sweet
Sweat drops rip through bird legs.
Confidence waning as it departs over western hills,
Threatening darkness, cold and lonely.
It is the same the heart and lungs that hurt as
they heave what they need,
And beg for breaks and dive-bar cigarette smoke.
Puffs of air, blades of grass
The multitudes abound because they have to.
A big patch lies here and there
All along the two mile climb.
Twilight has found the two mile climb
Somewhere along the way down.
The cooler air is chilling the sweat dripped
Down brows of brown, black, yellow, white.
This small victory; this little perseverance
Shared with the air, the grass
The lungs heart concrete sweet sun darkness:
Shared in every step; every mile.
In every house a better one sleeps tonight,
And waits for the next time
To bring feet to meet with the holy concrete
(Down!) Down the two mile climb.
//ww