Ramp Up

Junior plodded through the knee deep snow
Looking for a way up the sheer concrete cliff towering above him
Cold soaked into his very bones
Creeping deeper the longer he walked

Finally after what seemed like hours
Junior spied a possible solution

A pile of dried leaves was swept up against the perpendicular cliff face
Each leaf ten times as long as his own body
With a long flexible stem

Junior stepped gingerly upon the one closest to him where it met the ground
It creaked and flexed beneath his foot
But it held him up with no problem

This gave him confidence to take another few steps along the brown leaf's surface
And before he knew it he was half way up the first leaf
Several of his own body length's high from where he had started

"This will totally work"
He said to nobody but himself
Grinning in the cold
With his breath making vapor as he exhaled

The pile of leaves did not quite go all the way to the top of the sheer wall
Rather it was spread out a bit
Much wider than was needed for Junior's climb

So with ant-like exponential strength
Combined with the relative lightness of the leaves themselves
Junior dragged and pushed
Pulled and lifted
With minuscule beads of sweat running down his face
Causing steam to rise off his head in the cold crisp air

Finally the leaves were stacked and sloped
Into a rough ramp shape
Easily climbable by the tiny man named Junior

Up the first leaf
Across the second
A short clamber across the third
And Junior disappeared over the upper lip of the concrete face

Not looking back