The Mountain Poem by Jonathan Bellmann

Squinting into the stare of an unrelenting red giant,
A ledge of granite, hard as a rock cracked beneath a strain;
Suddenly with a shout, it let go tumbling down, down
From its lofty roost scraping its elbows, its chiseled nose
Against the hidden shadows of hardened crags and tors,
Gouging deep lesions, and splintering bones with each
Horrific scream; descending echoes bounced their skulls
Against the root of hallowed walls ravaged by glaciers.
Descending shards of rock and twisted shrubbery followed
The ledge down, ever down through a green canopy of stanch trees
Which were snapped like twigs, yet only louder.
Into a steep sided chasm, the rancor descended, ever deeper
Into the brooding darkness of an unleashed terror.
Through a choking dust uncertainties had yet to settle
As every neck strained skyward to see from where the beast came.
Disorientated, and face down in the cold, slimy mud of a stream,
The tattered ledge laid quietly listening to the sloshing of water.