Challenging Poetry

Tanzania: two peaks of Kilimanjaro

two neighbor mountains
(as close as conjoined twins)
fell out—over a prank
that one took too far.

the other (he has a temper,
that one) replied with
sticks and stones
(to break the bones),
beating the first until
he was a crumpled remnant
of the prankster he used to be—

we hear the tale and shake
our heads—surely they
must become unneighbors
one in jail, the other healing
from such wounds.

no, for when mountains argue,
they stand together still.
one broken down, the other dormant
but still fuming with temper,
ready to explode.

Author's Note ▼

This poem is based on one of the myths of Mt Kilimanjaro. Apparently "Kibo and Mawenzi were good neighbours, until Mawenzi played a prank on Kibo and threw away embers he had received from Kibo and claimed that they had burned out. Kibo eventually got angry and beat Mawenzi badly, explaining why the mountain is so badly degraded. This theory explains Mawenzi's name as "the Battered"." from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kilimanjaro

That caught my imagination, especially since Kibo is the only active peak left on Kilimanjaro, although it is presently in a dormant phase.