Kundalini Splendor

The Ascent

Yes, there is a mountain.
Yes, you are on it,
struggling upward,
stumbling over boulder
and rock.
There are others climbing with you.
Sometimes you nod
to one another,
sometimes you move in silence.
Occasionally, the clouds break open,
and you see something up ahead,
a scene of green and gold
like a fantasy kingdom
in a children's fairy tale.

You think there must be an easier way,
a shortcut or secret tunnel.
Someone will surely
come for you.
But if you imagine you are, one day,
going to be lifted up
by an angel
and whisked to the top,
and there be fitted with shining golden wings
to carry you
to farther reaches on beyond,
no, that will not happen.
Your path is here,
plodding over hard rubble
and scree
in a light that is failing,
an atmosphere that
ever thins.

Sometimes you're not sure
there is a mountain.
If you are there, moving upward,
toward some destination,
some supposed journey's end.

copyright, Dorothy Walters