When We Were Mountain Slopes

Yesterday I introduced you to Anne Waldman. Today, I've tried my hand at a similar style, relying on language to move the poem along and take it to its conclusion:

When We Were Mountain Slopes

I am

I amuse

I assume

I amass vast

            Collections of stuff

            Stuffed animals (blue bear, polar bear, puppet dragon, dragon that belonged to brother, TAC which is not a cat, Wollip which is a pillow…pet. Penguin, 10stitchesandthelistgoeson)

I go on

I go on to bigger things

I go on to smaller things

I go on top of you

Some of the time

We go on top of each other

            Through each other between each other inside each other

On the subways or

Times Square or rubble heap of World Trade Center

It will go on, on and up

We hold each other up

We prop each other up

We whisper each other up

In the waning night

I wean

I war

Whittle words

            Down to bare bones meanings

            Mean is average (if I am the mean then you are the mode, and our happiness is the median our lives are an exponential line rise, the sudden influx in shoppers at Christmas)

I live for Christmas

I live for Christ

I am Christina and I contain Christ

We contain Christ together

We bleed and ache together

I ache alone

Some of the time

We breathe on each other

            Through each other between each other inside each other

In Starbucks or through pixel

webcam screens or blackness or whiteness or multi-color

I multi-color

I color code

We color each other

Each other’s lives just by existing

I am we are I am we are I am we are

I am we are going up and up and on and on and up and on but what about

What about falling?