On how mountains get moved and why the reasonable man never moves them

One Stubborn Fool

A mountain don’t move for a reasonable man,
a reasonable man looks at it and adjusts his plan.
He goes around, he finds a pass, he reads the terrain right —
the mountain stays exactly where it is and sleeps at night.

But the stubborn fool don’t read terrain, he reads the thing itself,
he doesn’t route around the problem, doesn’t put it on a shelf.
He just starts moving dirt in an amount that seems insane
and comes back every morning and moves dirt again.

The mountain notices eventually — not all at once —
it notices the way that large things notice little stunts
that turn out not to be so little over years of showing up:
one shovel short of nothing slowly fills a cup.

I’ve moved no mountains but I’ve moved some things that felt the same,
by refusing to admit I’m tired and refusing to disclaim
the possibility that something big could fall to something small
and patient and too foolish and too stubborn to stand tall.

A mountain don’t get moved in one go… it gets moved one stubborn fool at a time who won’t admit he’s tired.

I’m Alan Nafzger. Appreciate ya!