When We Climbed

We used to climb to the clouds

Stand on ledges that we had beaten

And look at the view,

Rise above the the possibility of falling

And keep climbing until the limits of ourselves,

Surpassed the breaking point of what we thought we were

Our fragility was only a reminder,

That life is worth living.

But at some point

We started chipping at the mountain

Instead of walking the tightrope of life, climbing the mountains to heaven.

We had kept climbing because we were told we could,

We were told that if we believed,

That mountains,

Became molehills.

We could do this,

Because we dreamed big.

And then.

We fell.

Not far.

Just far enough to make us doubt ourselves,

Enough to scratch our dreams

And implant fear in our abilities.

And then the chipping began

Climbing became hard,

(Because fear gripped our hearts

We unleashed our rage at the mountain

Instead of pursuing the mountain)

But the unearthing of the mountain became undemanding

So instead of gravity defiers

We became miners

Looking to blow away the mountain

Because if we couldn’t climb,

Then why should anyone?

We began to detest looking up

And seeing the persistent continuing to go up.

So while we were stuck where we thought was hell,

The stoic ascended.

Instead of climbing

We only took more TNT to the mountain

Making its majesty less,

Because as much as we hated those who endured,

We loathe the mountain more.  

The mountain that we had built ourselves

The expectation we had created for ourselves and others.

And with each explosion ripping the mountain apart

Pieces of ourselves were destroyed too,

Limb after limb of ourselves ripped away.

And while they climbed, we excavated

Digging Labyrinths

Trying to push over the mountain

That had been given to us to build,

And each chip of the ol’ block became

A burden forced to carry,

A dream not carried out like our formers

That broke our and their backs for want of doing what wasn’t done

So crystal blue skies were replaced by the sullen grey rocks

Gritty, crimson gems were our new ecstasy,

Instead of the euphoria of the view.

And we were fine for a while.

Many had chosen the same path as we,

Choosing to live in the hell we had made,

The filth up to our necks

as the greed of not what we originally wanted,

sank in.

Bloody red gems, glimmering diamonds

With more blood on it than the dirt that coated it.

The rivulets of blood from the pain of clutching the razor edges,

cutting our hands

But our senses too jaded to feel pain.

Our clothes became tattered

Our minds filled with the lust of ourselves.

Immersing ourselves in hate.

We became demons

The monsters we had seen in our dreams

during sleepless night.

And then,

It all caved in,

The black brick above that was our sky

caved in,

right around us.

The dirt that had once been normality

choked us as air became a battle to suck in,

And as everyone cried out,

“The sky is falling”

We just sobbed

knowing that this wasn’t the real sky.

We’d seen the real sky.

Crystal blue with pale cushioned clouds,

Emerald trees lining the horizon.

We’d always told ourselves we’d go back.

But we didn’t.

We stayed in the tunnels we had made with the monsters among us,

And had become one ourselves,

We had started as climbers,

Demoted to miners

Because of the fear of failing,

And finally monsters,

Only because our hate for the mountain filled us

More than the want for succes.