A SEVEN-STORY MOUNTAIN
She climbs the ben
…………… the ragged,
……………………. jagged brae,
seven stories soaring
to Eden’s sunlit peak.
Bounded by southern seas,
the mountain is
the world, its two paths
up or
……………………. down
steep bluffs canopy
white spires hover
as she scales to surmount
the top ridge
crested with a stream,
a deep wood,
a griffin’s nest,
the discretion of dawn.
She ascends to surge,
scrambles to aspire,
outleaps her ridged feet
for fear of a littoral drop.
Author’s Bio
Monika Lee wrote gravity loves the body (2008), skin to skin (with Shelly Harder, 2016) and slender threads (2004). Her poems appear in Canadian Literature, Vallum, Scrivener Creative Review, Dalhousie Review, Nashwaak Review, Harpweaver, A Room of One’s Own, Event, Atlantis, The Fiddlehead, Antigonish Review, Windsor Review, and many other journals.