Mt Everest
Hubris is a pair of shiny boots stuck forever on a holy mountainside
Littered with chip bags, water bottles, and scraps of plastic.
In the boots are a pair of crepe paper feet, attached are legs in
A pair of 90s windbreaker pants, bright and orange,
Still swish-swishing in the wind, that match the jacket whose collar
Flaps around a half-decayed head, the flesh eroded around the snow white
Teeth that grin like someone just yelled “Say cheese!” even though
That corpse never reached the peak for a celebratory photo.
Hubris is thinking you can play a god, you can be a god at the top
Of the world, hand-held the entire way by peasantry who should
Just be grateful you were there to hand them big wads of money.
4 thoughts on "Mt Everest"
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I love how you build a mountain of sorts here with precise and grotesque details
Brutally efficient in your depictions of what happens with foolish pride, mountain or not.
Terrific metaphor. Grim. Real.
Reminds me of coming across an article not too long ago about the piles of trash left behind by hikers on their way to the summit, how the people of the region were responding to it and frankly fed up.
The imagery throughout is sobering and real, and it serves to make a clear “calling out” kind of statement.