Poem: Cliff

 

Cliff

 

weary basalt

hangs plump over the sea,

cubic honeycomb,

geological snakeskin

shedding shedding

so many millennia

to cry in relief.

 

not agile or bright

as ocean or sun,

a prometheus pummeled

while water and heat look on

not one iota awed

by the patience of this martyr.

 

we humans

hike-climb-swim-swarm-

chat-photo-film-feast while we

chirr-chirr-chirr our trill-word sounds,

gone as fast as we generate,

mere specks in the gales 

which erode our dreams.

 

maybe the cliff suffers for us,

insular from unheard empathy.

each of its tears a foamy splash,

tons and tons over the eons,

so much heaviness, so much pain,

to sob with the weight of stone.

and yet still 

so much remains--

duty-bound, unremittent, 

inevitable.

=========================

5/

26 ... there's no way to get this right

11/7/25 ... added a word

1026/ what a misery

9/8/25 struggle onward... 

7/20/25 ... eds 

10/10 mod

10/7/24 fixed typo

9/20/24 eds 

Entities with empathy on this planet are often surrounded by a lack of empathy.