Chalked hands roped waist helmeted head
Clear day long drive steep scramble rough rock
Careful necessaries impatient wait eager dread dreadful joy
On belay
Climbing
Cracks and crevasses
Bumps and lumps
Three point contact
Lean back
Away from the seeming security of the rock face
No real safety in hugging close
Safety only in separation
Lean out
Over the void
Trusting – am I mad?
In small finger holds, tiny toe grips
Lean out
Look up
Search the next move
Depend on life knowledge skill
Dare death
To drop me
Halfway up
Suspended between here and now
Tethered alone
Face to the rock back to the void
Heart beats hard against gray ribs
My shirt is wet
So are my panties
Hard rock quiet under my finding fingers
Sweet butter pulse in my grasping groin
The rhythm of my fingers
Steadies upward for my hard hold
The pulse of my groin
Surges upward for my waking womb
I lean out
Strong and sure
Suspended by fingertips
Over the void
Laughing
Confident
Terrified
Turned on