When You Climb Poem by Felix Bongjoh

(i)

Facing a nimbus cloud,
When you spin
In a stratus stretch
Of jagged rock
Galloping like a horse
Without a rider,

Scoop out sand
And cobblestones
To carry your slippery feet,
When you scale up
A craggy serrated slope.

When you climb
A steep hill,
Look back to tug up
Folks trailing

Behind in their stretchy
Trailer of angles
And round bends
For the next rocky step,

Their heads filled
With butterflies of digits
That don't add up.

When you climb
A mountain staggered
Into many rocky
Layers, each a step,

Look back at the fire
Of a man
At the tail of your trail.

Hoisting a fag
At a peak,
Pulls everybody
Up and together

Like a reef knot
Tying up ship shank
Gazes
Stropped into a sharp peek
Hitting the next peak

For the next storm
Of climbing,

One summit after the other
Raising their shoulders
For another
Staggered rocky stretch

To hurl you up
To the next staircase,
A climb crawling up.

(ii)

Through many
Staircases,
As slopes stick
Out sharp breaking spines,
And folks scale up,
Rock dent after rock dent,

Swimming in their
Slippery, sticky sweat,
Melting into lakes

And rivers that can drown
The dude out of steam
At the tail of climbers.

When you climb
Looking back
At other footmen in the trail,
You leave a four-wheel
Drive vehicle
Of stretchy sight

To lift up your pieces
To the summit,
When you're out of breath.