The Mountain

Where did the mountain go?   

The roads

broke into stops   

more full

than periods  

New paragraph

Right now there’s more distorted skyline

A god holds glasses over my eyes

but I’m already wearing contacts  

headachy everything

The background in sight shakes before us

My left hand holds a bucket           my right

holding hands with you who asks,

“Why is your bucket empty?”

Well, I say, I saved all the space

for amazement man’s greatest achievement     

The emptiness  

doesn’t strain

my back or blister

my palms by the handles

like everyone said it would

Ellipses

we wander on

two dots

to wandering

to nothing

to wandering

two dots

press on

Why did they want me to drop the bucket

Tank the space            question mark question mark question mark

From where did I get this fear

of looking into their buckets

at what makes the handles

hurt their hands and of what weight

do their backs strain holding

New page

I walk

to gravel roads

where the rocks

have turned to sand

Frost told fables

of roads forked in two 

His romance of hope

brought me here 

To endless lots

of empty land 

his mighty human will

the power to choose

What’s the use after all

in a land with no roads

punctuation chooses you

asking why my bucket is empty

The mountain moved on

to beings more worthy

whose roads won’t

cut it apart 

My left hand

heavy

We, the guilty  

We, who leveled its beauty

drop the bucket

Full stop