Crumbling Basecamps                       Download a PDF of this text for printing.

By Inkaliisa Voionmaa 

I have decided that I am allergic to peanuts

because it gives me a tangible reason to be out of breath,

at least when eating nutty chocolates.

There was a mountain of sorrow, and there was me

and perhaps she was there.

I named its highest peak in her honor.

It is her flag that is planted on its breathless heights,

her colours that fly motionless in this vacuum of mine.

There is a climbing that happens and

a setting in motion of pebbles, stones, boulders.

There is a swallowing that happens and

sometimes there is an alp

dislodging itself

from the surrounding selflessness of it all.

I have decided that my heart will not race anymore

and sometimes it heeds

and lags.