Andrew Lumborg
Mallory and Irvine
Our remains are silent
witness to the ascent we made
but the feeling is expansion
of spirit, great fatigue, relief.
There is no higher plane
than this crag on the edge of space
so often sought and lost
or won. Our luck was
owning the place for a time:
we knew its breathless awe
even as the snow came down.
We deem it worth the climb,
the blackened extremities, the burn
of ultraviolet sun and sky,
the racking cough, the visions
of altitude. This is the most real
for which no substitution is possible.
The descent began blind.
Stung by Himalayan blizzard-ice,
knowledge hardened in us
of our mission’s threatened end.
There was no more to be done:
the cold ceased, light was moving
as we came to the first tents.
Page(s) 42
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