We are always climbing mountains
You told me ‘This time it’s the destination, not the journey’

Sometimes above the shimmering white grey blanket
You want to dive into this mystic agitated pool
This illusion that eats up shouts
The hush of the unknowable

Now we sit back to back
Overwhelmed
Trying to breathe slow and measured

(Down on the ground, you had been angry with me about something
And I climbed up with fierce resolve, heart thumping disco erratic
The drum beat swoosh of counterpoints unspoken)

Now as I feel your body warmth
Here in this limbo of the serene
I want so very much
To hold you close
Slow down time even more than it is already
Let the clouds, the damp, the otherness
Take us over.

Sometimes the sky is clear, we are part of it
Weak sun distracted
The clear blue freeze frame

Later we hold hands tight
Standing as close to the edge as we dare
Shout up
Past the brightness
Past the sunset into the black
Our cries bounce against the sharp stars of infinity

I want nothing more than to get home
Into bed
Roll up in you

Roll up in you

We were always climbing mountains

You would joke only we crazy fools knew how to dance
Way up there in the stillness
We could hear the music that no one else could

Much later

It’s been ten years since I last saw you
You were folding clothes in the corner of my cluttered bedroom
An extended goodbye
You seemed clear headed, distant already
I was attempting to stay stoned, thoughtless
Already imagining the silence
That would take your space

I loved you more than ever
But kept my peace

Stared past you at the rain battering the window
Stared at the poster about to fall defeated, from the wall
Stared at your elegant jeans.

I was fast forwarding into the room where you were long gone
You were slow motion trying once last time to save what was left of us

I remember that there was no music playing, but
The record still went round and round
The needle clicks keeping a desperate sense of time

And I remember (way up there) the feel of your back against mine
Remember the way you held my hand extra hard

Those days long gone
When we were always climbing mountains