Mountaineer

At rope's end
I tie the knot
(though not the knot I once wished to tie)
regain my grip
and begin to climb

Backwards, up
past ground
once securely held
where persistent bastions
of my lost glory
stand still for me to view

Upwards I climb
more surely now
through painful memory, I do not fall

Until I reach this rope's top
and find
It is just another end.