The Climb

There, I never had time,

to think, or,

to look back at

what I just left behind:

The shade,

the safe confines of a

heart at rest, away from the

muscle and hustle of love,

on a recliner.

There, I took the

sharp left,

to begin my

erotic slither up

your contours,

your lips, and your

heaving, heavy breasts.

I was defining,

reiterating, like those milestones,

the stubborn life,

and, now,

a stubborn death,

in truth as well as lies.

So, judge me, will ya?

This day, for life...

Lest I die before

I return to your arms again.

But, I better not die this morn,

noon, or at the campfire,

chewing boneless fish,

relishing the formless bond

with boys old

and men young.

Back, on the incline...

I better not sleep,

I better not stop for Facebook,

for a frame in its video.

My movie is beyond you Mark,

just like the beauty

of the valley is to me now,

the taunt from a virgin,

while I scale the

mother of many.

In her beauty,

in the roundness of her being,

I burn, churn...

The turns, the ferns,

passing mites and mates,

gangsters, their families,

good Samaritans,

school scholars,

and finally Jesus,

His house I stayed, a minute;

for the Host, the pure mountain air,

laced with salt, lemon,

and a prayer.

After years I communed,

on my elbows, aged and wise,

hunched over the

drop handles,

as humble as I could ever be.

The final kick,

I searched,

the last three furlongs,

smiling at the amused boy,

the bemused man;

smirking at the

crowded market,

and swearing at the porch,

for it meant the end,

as I felt the rush

shiver through my body

and leave me,

to fly over a misty lake,

towards sunset,

and a brighter tomorrow,

for all of us, fingers crossed.

The lone man

I spent talking with,

hours up the path,

o’er smashed oranges,

past angry apes,

side-stepping haulers,

trawlers and tourists,

had already punched and killed him.

That insignificant

little bastard we call Limit.

(On the 52-km climb up to Kodaikanal, which I cycled last month, on the last day of KC500, the 500-km charity cycling ride from Chennai to Kodai)