Mount Olympus doesn’t cease to exist because of Everest
it just is as tall as it wants to be
I think of all the stones it had to push together
to reach its peak
And how it laughs at the sea that said
it would never make it

If I always knew
what I know
I’d have started off building a world without trap doors
I’d have built the world on accountability
where we keep each other safe

I’d whisper to the assembly of swallowed breaths
that could never know how far we’d have to arrive
to get there
and say
one day,
we’ll truly know what it means
to bathe in the freedom of truth
and use every square inch of air
in these lungs

That when the sun sets on a stormy night
daybreak blooms clarity atop a ridge
we thought ourselves too gentle to climb
And on the way up
I’ll tell her who we once were
climbing mountains in the dark to nowhere
isn’t where we’ll arrive