Why is Everest so tall?
As tall as the knees I hug in my bed,
And as cold as the sweat on my brow,
    
     “But mama, I promise I’m going to climb      that mountain, and slay that dragon 
because I promised, I said I would”,

And if my body is not willing,
I will sacrifice it along the way,

People ask me why I keep going,
It’s not for glory,
Glory’s trail glitters like a comet, 
but it is just as fleeting,
A man cannot live on glory, 
and on Everest, 
A man will starve before 
he ever tastes glory’s sweet embrace, 
Glory comes from doing the impossible, 
From doing what would crush others into 
a fine snowy powder,

So why do the impossible?
Why risk frost bitten fingers 
and toes and maybe even a nose?
Why risk avalanches, and snow storms, and being swallowed into the cavernous ice?
why risk facing an Abominable Snowman?

     “It’s because I know I can!” 

I may be foolish, I may be crazy, I may freeze to death, and be permanently 
affixed to the mountain, but if I am, 
My frozen statue will be in climbing position, 

Higher and higher I will go until 
I reach the summit, 
until I see the sunrise and the sunset 
on the world below, 
until I carefully pick out my place on earth, and set out on the next adventure!

     ~ By Hyacinth Hale