Success  

Climb the gut-wrenching peak.
Ignore the terrifying height
that melts the knees.
Do not look down,
down into the nothingness above
the valley
where friendly meadows beckon and
suck at the gut with their distance.

Stare, only at the solid rock
beneath the feet.
Clutch the cliff;
lean away from the terrible void;
scramble to the top and breathe
the thin air that does not
satisfy.

© 2006 Anton Capri