Mountaineer Poem by RIC BASTASA

they do not climb mountains for fun
they live there
eating bananas for breakfast
no fish
it has become too expensive
like the pinch of salt that now they can hardly afford
no chunks of brown sugar
used to have some
dinner is uncertain
and supper is still a possibility
with herbs and
stolen potato
and some edible frogs and
worms

the children are thin and uneducated
the father is lean
and has no means of livelihood
except to climb the mountains
find the forest
and by luck still find some honey and yam and roots
and small snakes
no wild animals to eat
they are all shot by game hunters in uniforms
and the mother
is bloating six months pregnant
for her
12th child