Poetry Pages #2, by Kimberly White

Mountain Pages (#2)
excerpts from Mountains, a book-length long poem

Conquer.

Do not use this word on a mountain. The mountain swats flies that are
stronger than you. Stubbornness does not move mountains, does not
conquer mountains.

Their stubborn bodies are recovered, removed, most of them. Once in a
while, the mountain keeps one. The gear they leave behind is buried, eroded, eaten. Conquered.

For those who never leave the mountain, resurrection will come at a colder pace.

The mountain does not choose its dead. It reluctantly receives.

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Kimberly White’s poetry has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Cream City Review, Big Muddy, Dark Matter, and other journals and anthologies.  She is the author of four chapbooks, Penelope, A Reachable Tibet, The Daily Diaries of Death, and Letters To A Dead Man; two novels: Bandy’s Restola, and Hotel Tarantula.  Find poetry and collage art on her website, http://www.purplecouchworks.com, as well as on Facebook, and various refrigerator doors.

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