Decline
- Details
- Written July 2008
Set off downhill, poles adjusted
With high heels discarded for trainers
Kicking pebbles millennia have loosened
With sub-zero cracks tomb-stoning the past
As Alpine roses creep around
Edges of memory and a failing frame.
Stop at the cliffs, sheer in ascent
Barricading novice walkers in silence
Prepared to gaze through a maelstrom of muddle
About the unfathomed distance between gentians
Clustered in the closest of botany’s families
Falling apart with separation.
Arrive in the meadows, gentle and rollingSeeded by centuries, grassed and grazed
Leaving a myriad of flowers un-plucked
Until tomorrow’s reaper gathers fodder
Rolled, sealed and baled for digestion
As neuronal pathways un-bundle with ageing.
Arosa, Switzerland
July 2008
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You can watch a short video-clip of the walk down Hörnli that prompted this poem: