altitude thins
the company,
as vegetation goes
from forests
to scruff grasses
and rock.
inside holds
rooms where people
dwell, covering
their cold,
their extreme
frailty with thick,
rising, sheer altitude.
Water that sank them,
their boats at the edge,
churkles as silks
beneath the skirts of the risen
thick and thin our
lungs walking
on water
the mountain holds.