Cliff-hanging

Cliff-hanging

by Kelp 

Watching others do it,
I thought I could do it, too.
Not that it looked easy,
Or safe.
But it seemed within reach.

I wasn’t thinking much
About the training.
You have muscles, I have muscles,
Was my thought process.
I was sure it would take practice.
Which I was prepared to do.
Discipline, well I had discipline.
Ambition, drive, hunger, desire,
I had them all, or felt I did,
And a feeling is always
Real, is it not?

I wasn’t thinking about
The shape of my body
The weight of my body
The strength of my fingers
My capacity for pain.

It didn’t look easy
But it looked easy
Enough, and anyway
That’s when I was young.

Now, after scores
Of years
Of trying to do it
Of doing it wrong
Or just a bit wrong,
Firmly grounded
I watch them do it,
Gazing upward,
Enflamed eyes aglow,
How, how, how? 

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The Chicken Nest