Title: Sport 41: 2013

Publication details: Fergus Barrowman, 2014, Wellington

Part of: Sport

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Sport 41: 2013

Maria McMillan

page 18

Maria McMillan

Fatigue

I have to figure out fatigue.
I climb all day and spin and hold
my body in only the most treacherous

positions until I want to weep
with tiredness. I need warm food.
So now I climb. And when I can

do it no more I climb more. And some
thing stops me climbing and I override
the thing to climb again. Knowing

my body, its mass, when and how
muscles fail, the mechanics of it.
And the thing stops me and

I climb through the thing and
no matter how I try I can not climb until
I fall, over and over I try, thinking

I know what a body can do
and it can not do this.

page 19

Rope

The only thing I can possibly do
is stay here forever, hanging
on with both hands, not ever

doing the next thing. I will
find a way to loop the rope
around me so when I sleep

I will not fall. Warm clothes
will be delivered.
Blimey. The wind is everywhere.

Most things live suspended
in matter as dense as itself.
We sink to the bottom like

weighted divers.
The perfect twist.
The nest of sleeping mice.

I’m still. I must move
all my muscles in the same
moment to be this still.

I think of the rope.
The rope disappears.