She Carried the World

She carried the world
with the steady strength
of her back, and never questioned
whether the weight would someday
wear her straight down into
bowels so deep with slopes so smooth
that the anticipated ascent would
most likely never come.

She smiled and joked
regardless of what swirled about,
debris left scattered throughout
with little thought of who would be
left to help pick up the mess,
and eventually the cluttered landscape
would be hers, and hers alone,
to deal with and to claim.