Striated towers of earth, 
secret pillared mountains emerging from the mists.

How majestic you are, 
each cut separately from the other, 
collonades assembled like the ribs of a fallen giant.

Once upon a time were you not all 
of the same mountainous hillside?

Centuries shaped you, withered you, 
carved away until the skeletal towers 
protruded above the disintegration.

How too are our lives like crumbling mountains,
rumbling tempos of ridgelines, uneven,
Severed and regal, creviced and lowly.

Peeled away by storms and 
stripped to the bare rock face.
Softened in hanging clouds, 
moisture heavy layers shed 
against heightened winds.

I too cling to the bottom of the sky,
My body a broken staircase to the stars, 
My life a releasing grasp at the heavens
Dwindling, loosening, falling to rubble and rock fields 
of its former magnificence.

Fractured edges lose altitude, 
landslides of lifetimes,
Echo on the high plains below.