Rhetorical Questions

Can I stand atop
the Golden Mountain
looking down on you
shattered and mangled?

Is it right for me
to breathe the alpine air
when your lungs
have collapsed?

If I climb
all the way back down
will I be able
to help you at all?

Or will I cede
everything I have struggled for
and end up
lonely and broken too?

Why can’t I enjoy
this perfect vista
and these fabulous people
if it is my will?

Where is it written
that I am not entitled
to frolic
because you’ve stumbled hard?

Who made me
a slave to circumstance
isn’t life
my choice to make?

What if I want to be
everything you were not
how can your failure
stop me?

When will I meet someone
who understands
that your ghost
doesn’t haunt me anymore?