mountain views

i just want to watch

slack-eyed and damned
irreversibly languid yet
alight--hot coals under my soil--
was i once a rock? and did it split?
perhaps it melted; i feel now
the impassivity of a mountain
without the grandeur, of course--
let me Watch, goddamnit!
some innocent activity taking place
a child's play, a stock trade, an art show, an arcade,
just anything--any human thing--
but once here i cannot stand it,
no take it away, hide me
in some mountain spring's dark cave.
redemption dances lightly away,
love forever fingertips out of reach,
even watching cannot conjure
whatever tendril of the past i was looking for.

4/23/24