Heights of Machu Picchu

. . . .

Then on the ladder of the earth I climbed

through the lost jungle’s tortured thicket

up to you, Macchu Picchu.

High city of laddered stones,

at last the dwelling of what earth

never covered in vestments of sleep.

In you like two lines parallel,

the cradles of lightning and man

rocked in a wind of thorns.

Pablo Neruda

. . . .

Machu Picchu, Peru, 2015