PINNACLE
just after
mind melds
involving
the big five
in Kruger
I climbed Annapura,
Lhotse and, what’s its
name?
Oh, yes,
K2
backpack full of
bottles of
oxygen
for the death zone
plus
packs of wors and
jumbo cans of beer
for what use is
summiting if
you can’t
have a party?
hacksaw blade stuck
under my arm conveniently
that up on the pinnacle I
could Table Mountify
everything
make it
nice a flat for
cable cars and those
who
ascend for a view
JOZIE
hours later
my eyes
still glued to the road
except
this is all afterburn
the road is inside my head
oh Jozie
flashiest of cities
will you
flash for me
as I flash by
naked on the hotel bed
I feel gravity, taste relativity
conjure you up
from every mixed memory
(and
much mixed metaphor —
woefully so)
the mirror is like
the bottom of the sea
so far inland but
I can hear the waves in
False Bay roaring
but is this dream
trajectory
or am I now, at last,
speeding homeward?
so many souls leaving
not staying, refusing
to stick around in case
of a grand finale
jaw-dropping twist
in the ending
like when you
first confessed your nakedness
poems 2 die for