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Rock Music

Silence.
Hawks soar the rock cathedral heights.
The wind's howl is only my breathing;
I stop and look.

Planning placements,
I think the rocky shapes.
A chock wedges in from rack to crack;
A carabiner's snap echoes the space.

I ascend slowly —
Feeling the frail fractures of the face.
I stand on slender stubs of stone,
Alone in this place of roaring rising rock.

Gravity fights my fingers;
Muscles strain and the brain senses pain.
Reaching outward there is nothing more —
Nothing but whispered secrets.

I cannot hear —
My heart beats a thousand feet of fear.
The mind stands precariously balanced,
Between sheer wall and uncertain fall.

Silence.
Hawks soar the rock cathedral heights.
I listen to the cool textured surface,
And move upwards.

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Copyright © 1989 by Wataru Ebihara