Hills

By Micaela Olsen

These hills loom large ahead
and sneer with snobbish eyes.
For such gaze does antagonize
and shake my soul with dread.

Their silent stares deafen my ears
and bruise my heart of desire.
Their goal is to rob all things that inspire.
The longer I stay, they seize my life and free my fears

Barren brown cracks of dusty earth serve to remind me;
Life does not grow here.
My own broken body below proves I did not persevere.
For there is no tree or sanctuary among thee

Every day I walk to the base where they lay.
My hands stretch in gowpen to catch showers of dreams,
but these hills dried up all hopeful streams.
Now below I lay with these hands on a path to decay.

Oh hills, you are a cage!
Such malicious immovable mountains!
At every attempt to venture beyond, they seal this prison. I’m certain
this constant war I am too weak to wage.

My crusted lips sometimes slip through the bars to shout my woes,
but my stolen voice is caught in dusty winds
With the rusted gates closed, I stay trapped within.
My head bows to my rocky foe.

Beyond these hills, I cannot see,
but of the world blocked by them far in the distance;
I know of its existence.
and tall they stand to shield me from that place without mercy.

In times past, I once believed they welcomed me
to one day venture beyond their slopes to places unknown
and leave my current place which I had outgrown.
Their ridges are the gates of heaven that conceal new scenery.

But now with menacing looks, they mock my failures
These hills an unholy judge, certain to damn me
to this place that I shall never leave.
These hills forever hide my future.

Author Bio

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