The Innkeeper's Bones
Grandmother Everest caresses clouds
with her diamond-studded, silky crown.
Westerners come to conquer and boast
Sherpas wish to provide for their loves
and must always bear the heaviest load.
Shaman chants echoing from base camp
The mountain tourists are not listening
They're having a toast and chewing granola bars.
Prayer flags dance and quietly chat
Snowflakes are dreaming in avalanche.
Shaman chant from base camp
They're still not listening.
Today is the push for the summit.
The rich. plastic-dipped mountaineers.
Pickaxe the icy apron of Grandmother Everest.
The weather shifts-windchill dips....
The fog and wind perform their wicked tricks.
The reaper is the death zone storekeeper.
Shelves lined with broken axes -blistered faith.
Empty oxygen bottles, the last prayer of a mate.
Grandmother Everest is the keeper of ego and bones.
At base camp, the shaman chants
The prayer flags whip
Only the dead and dying are listening.
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