Climbing You

 I want to understand the steep thing
that climbs ladders in your throat.

I can't make sense of you.

Everywhere I look you're there--
a vast landmark, a volcano
poking its head through the clouds,
Gulliver sprawled across Lilliput.


I climb into your eyes, looking.

The pupils are black painted stage flats.

They can be pulled down like window shades.

I switch on a light in your iris.

Your brain ticks like a bomb.


In your offhand, mocking way
you've invited me into your chest.

Inside: the blur that poses as your heart.

I'm supposed to go in with a torch
or maybe hot water bottles
& defrost it by hand
as one defrosts an old refrigerator.

It will shudder & sigh
(the icebox to the insomniac).


Oh there's nothing like love between us.

You're the mountain, I am climbing you.

If I fall, you won't be all to blame,
but you'll wait years maybe
for the next doomed expedition.

Biography | Poems | Best Poems | Short Poems | Quotes | Email Poem |

Poems are below...