Endless years of striving up the treacherous mountain.

My weary soul aches for reprieve.

If I reach for water,

Thirst will only return.

If I find food,

Hunger will ravish my body again.

Building a fire never stops the pelting snow.

My blurry gaze falls on the cliff my eyes know so well,

Unfamiliar to my feet.

A thief of wrinkles and arthritis,

A sinister friend.

Am I a stranger to the precipice?

The others were not faceless.

Ghostly prints guide my sandy path.

The simplicity of a single step.

Escape.