Eerie Indicators

early morning boot crunch
has taken us high,
stepped autumn plateau
where what has
and what will, carries
'back of mind' 
its sinister surround

feelings cross over
earth's moonscape extended,
no place over time
where we just shouldn't be

walking the quiet top
of what's underneath,
eerie indicators float
in quiet white steam wisps,
a leftover terrible heat
on leave from below

tranquility masks this elevation
on, among,
around different shapes
volcanoes simply wait,
here in a calm
deadly beautiful surround

where the security of probabilities
still weaves wariness among
the remote of possibilities as
within each volcano's reach
a helpless edge
not felt far below

mid-walk weariness
resting beside an abyss,
four hours either way
leaves us simply just here,
sheer nearness changes minor
what to us must play major

burnt red crater
true to its name,
among crater cones
life's impermanence
so high

casting an upward
thinking eye
playing with "what if?",
but ultimately forward
this land can only be
a place where life
simply must die