Read my latest story, "A Tale of Two Birthdays", at 52|250.

Fujisan

I always said I climbed alone
that mountain, that perfect composite
cone    I said
I started at the shrine, the bottom

seems logical enough
but said I didn’t take the bus
halfway up

and I didn’t
but I wasn’t

alone

the woman who ran the abandoned
tea house and pointed my way
was my first clue

foxes & wings & formless
followed me
from Fuji Sengen Jinja
where I threw a coin & clapped a bell

over treeline
they lifted boulders
lifted feet
and finally lifted clouds

so I could cheer the sun to rise
a hundred thousand lives