Up on Top

After stumbling a long time over impossible trails   

you are up on top.   

Hardship didn't crush you, you trod it   

down, climbed higher.

That's how you see it. After life has tossed you   

away, and you ended up on top   

like a one-legged wooden horse on a dump.   

Life is merciful, it blinds and provides illusions,   

and destiny takes on our burden:   

foolishness and arrogance become mountains and marshy places,   

hate and resentment become wounds from enemy arrows,   

and the doubt always with us becomes cold dry

rocky valleys.

You go in the door.   

The pot lies upside down in the hearth,   

it sprawls with hostile black feet.