TOPO

From below, a seam can keep one name
for an entire pitch.

At reach it separates—

crack from stain,
edge from shadow,
a depth that receives fingers
from darkness with no depth at all.

P₁ falls below the first reliable view.
By the time the face becomes legible,
the route would already have begun.

A description gets written afterward.
Its verbs remain imperative.

follow
traverse
gain
belay

NO β ABOVE THIS POINT

The shadow had overtaken P₄
before those instructions were
of any use there.

From here, the long feature continues.
At body scale it may resolve as

watercourse / fracture / shallow seam /
    / nothing protectable.

P₄?

continue while the feature
remains coextensive
with itself.

next protection
where