Screeching
Shrieking
Howling
Whipping
Wind tears at my flesh
Rocks tear at my fists
As I climb the spire
Higher, higher,
Listening to the wailing,
A thousand damned souls
Buried in the rock face I
Pull myself up.
Keep going.
Must keep going.
Can’t stop,
So close.
Pulling
Grasping
Reaching
Higher
Higher I climb
Over the faces
Buried in rock
Mother, father
Friends, teachers
Everyone
Can’t let any of them
Stop me now
He’ll get me,
That ghastly leaping thing
On the rocks below
Clad in rags
And a dead man’s skin
With empty eyes
And a skeletal sneer
Below his writhing silver hair
Up I go
Up I go
Ignore the pain
The sudden whiff of
Blood, tears, sweat,
The pleas of faces
Buried in the rocks
And that rasping whisper,
It’s not a race
You can ever win
There is no place to go.
Almost there.
Almost there!
I grab the edge,
Pull myself to the top
Of the heap and look around
And there’s nothing there
But shrieking wind
And jagged rocks
And the thing.
There’s no place to go.
Except down again
Or into swirling air
My fragile grip breaks
I am taken away
To add my own howls
To the storm
And wake,
Wake again
Convince my self it’s just a dream
Bandage my bloody hands
Shut the window to the wind
Prepare for work again.
by Anson Brehmer
To read more of Anson Brehmer’s poems and short stories visit vamplitpublishing.ning.com






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