---
title: The mountain
genre: verse

id: mountain
toc: "The mountain"

project:
    title: Elegies for alternate selves
    class: elegies
    order: 19
    prev:
    - title: The moon is gone and in its place a mirror
      link: moongone
    next:
    - title: Serengeti
      link: serengeti
...

| The other side of this mountain
| is not the mountain.  This side
| is honey-golden, sticky-sweet,
| full of phone conversations with mother.
| The other side is a bell,
| ringing in the church-steeple
| the day mother died.

| The other side of the mountain
| [is not a mountain.  It is a dark][apollo]
| valley crossed by a river.
| There is a ferry at the bottom.

| This mountain is not a mountain.
| I walked to the top, but it turned
| and was only a shelf halfway up.
| I felt like an unused Bible
| sitting on a [dusty pew][].

| A hawk soars over the mountain.
| She is looking for home.

[apollo]: apollo11.html
[dusty pew]: and.html