…I thought I left behind

Here in the night, I stand at the top of the world
the mountain beneath me, no longer the behemoth
that it appeared in the light
the stark emptiness of the climb in daylight
now just distant echoes,fading
into the depths of the weeping clouds
that are retreating into the corners of darkness
stars are threaded through every inch of the night
and invisible, the listening trees, sing softly in the shadows
I am drifting and drowning and drifting again
so far above it all, so close to the sky, so far from the sea
my fears unseen, speak to me in tongues
I cannot name, nor comprehend
what would it feel like
to fall?
to fall
from these lofty heights?
through the cold
wet air
that surrounds me?
I feel my breath, labouring in the thin atmosphere
and the ground shudders beneath my feet
or is it me?
me that trembles so?
or perhaps it is the echoes, of the echoes of memories
carried to me upon the soft winds
and the hushed whispers of this tranquil place?
in the dissonant beauty, of this moment in time
it seems that the things I thought I left behind
have now become mountains
in their own time
© Ann Bagnall