Rises monstrous out of the Baltoro Glacier
Playing poker with oxygen levels
Plays leap frog with embolisms.
Malice and vanity join forces so
murder guns the air even before
the Death Zone. Down suits, bold and cocky
registers climber ambitions.
The Serac , a crisp, white wall of kill
Threatens to round and pound for
days before it does so.
A suicide bomber waiting for its moment.
And Art’s rescue was in full flow before
the avalanche took him and he faded into
powder.
All the boys gone doing what they loved
Big Ger and Rolf, who left his Cecilie
on the ropes. Wilco’s lust for his summit
saw the Koreans tangled and questions asked.
No answers, though, and ninety different stories
Crowded into a bottleneck of truth and
lies as the moans of Winter’s
ghosts howl louder.
Sassy Back Talkers!