When mountains talk
Uncle History stops to listen
The Himalayas give up
Their secrets, dead climbers
Revealed, one corpse
With an axe…
You become an “it”
When you’re frozen
Uncle thinks
It gives him comfort
He likes stories
Where men fight to the last
Persepolis, Stalingrad
This morning he hears a mountain
Speaking of women
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile,
Italy, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal—
“Everywhere they protect us”
A pause—“what have men done?”
Planet of the Blind 