Alpine wind
Falling
Forever
The air’s so thin
Leaves and stone and rain
And mud and snow and
Water and steps and slopes
And links in the chain
Then you don’t know the mind
Then you don’t understand
Then you don’t know the bite
Then you know the might
We’re dancing on the tongue
Looking up at
White cliffs
And granite outcrops
Then you don’t understand
As you walk and admire the span
Of every horizon so far below
The Teeth of Cascadia
Then you’ll know the plan
To get there
Was
Worth it more than you can know
Then you don’t know the flight
It took to get here
You don’t know
You’re not just human
You’re a machine who climbed
Into the giant’s jaw
Just a pinprick
Just an impossible dot
On the snowy white teeth
In a torquoize mouth of
The giant Cascadia
Improbable caught
No way off the rock
Lost in the trenches
And cliffs
And slopes
In the mouth
The jagged maw
Snowcapped and cold
Alpine and warm
Somehow never explored
Glancing bites
Among the tree horizon
We were set up
And green flesh pushed away
To rise above were
The hard stone and lakes
Then you know the might
Then you know the bite by
Green below the stone
Jagged chained grey
Bow down to the
Beast of Cascadia
Lay down like an
Awe-struck follower
Walk along
It’s jaw
And pray it doesn’t eat you
Or that the slopes of stone
Don’t take your life
Understand the beauty it holds
But know that any wrong move
Can take you tumbling down
Those same beautiful mountains
Bow down to the
Beast of Cascadia
Stand down
To the
Teeth of Cascadia
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