On Hiking (NYPC #7)

New Year's Poetry Challenge, Prompt #7

"Trails and Paths. Think about trails and paths, real and/or imagined that you have traveled or would like to travel. Imagine those trails that loom large – the Pacific Crest Trail, the Appalachian Trail, the Camino, and imagine those that loom close and personal – a path to recovery, a path to a career goal, a path to a poem, a path toward…whatever we all take paths toward. Write a poem. If you’d like a parameter, make your poem look path-like – a few words on each line perhaps; a long, skinny poem perhaps; playing with spacing perhaps." 

Wish I could be as carefree

   as those who do not fear death

      on a ten percent grade downhill

Not me

I stand back where it is

safe

and the only

s                                             

l

o

p

e

is the frown of my

disappointment. I want to

                                y

                l              

f

but I am too afraid of falling

to try

I am

an addict

Don't know how to live

   unless I am skin-kneed

      on an uphill battle

         unless I am hiking 

            with glass slippers

         Only know how to live

      when I am healing

   I am an addict

of suffering

   Don't know to breathe

      without words

         Use them to carry me

            on the road to recovery

         I am constantly

      healing

   and haven't yet learned

that's a good thing