Pen y Fan
The killer mountain that separates living from dead
Published in
Jun 26, 2024
In summer-dry peroxide hills
somewhere among the arterial pleasures
of California’s snaking coastline
a solitary figure runs
bare-chested & sweating
dropping excess weight with aid of a backpack
fully laden but ill-advised.
My mind immediately travels the vast
continent jumping across ocean & sea
back home to Welsh borderlands —
a stone’s throw from SAS Headquarters
where anonymous men meet for
a 40-mile stretch of pain across stark Welsh hills.
Each year, they push the seamless line between life &death.
Exhaustion & heat often take a few —
but what’s the acceptable limit?
We die for war before battlefield’s commence
& secret sorties on guiltless lands
far away from Pen y Fan.
Copyright Simon Heathcote
