This Hill of Which They Speak

The one you get over? You have questions.

Are you on foot or in a car or a roller coaster or what?
Because the mode of transport makes all the difference
In how the hill gets overed.

What’s the plateau
between incline and down?
Is that here, now, the Big Birthday trigger for this horrific piece of junk mail from the AARP, this Invitation to Join?

The tippy top is a nice spot
to stop and hydrate and eat something
and look out
at how far you’ve climbed
and how small everything seems down there.

Do you really get to stop pushing now? Is your pushing part no longer required?
Because you worked hard for these pushing muscles.
And they got you this far
And they got you this strong

But now you’re a Downhiller and so you gotta ask: where does all that effort go, if not towards where you’re going?

If the forces of momentum are now at your back, what do you do with the forces inside?

Or are you on wheels? Are you rolling now, faster and faster, down down down with no breaks hurtling to the end?

And finally, obviously: what’s at the bottom? Is the end a collision or evaporation or explosion or passage Somewhere Else?