Poemvember 2018-Day 2: “Passage"

“Passage”

It was once asserted that way leads on to way.

But…

Danger inherent and implied sits thick at a cave’s entrance, and starts its gradual suffocation once a step is taken over the threshold.

Caves, paths, and passages, can manifest like that.

They can also manifest as dark, gnarled, cavernous, turnabouts.

Where danger and death collect their tolls.

Places where missteps and doubt create chaos.

Panic rises, flight ensues.

Where to?

The light at the end of a tunnel?

False hope?

A spelunkers oasis.

The light at the end of the tunnel is the mermaid of subterranean passages.

Sometimes they entreat a wary traveler to gamble away all they have.

A ruse.

No way out but through.

Not over, or under,

But through.

Strands of gossamer.

Deep powdered crude-oil darkness.

Viscous, pervasive.

Deprivation of sight, but enhanced hearing.

To no advantage, really.

Who wants to hear an unseen terror as it possesses your agency.

Cave-teets of stalactite drip calcium salt deposits,

And over time grow lethal stalagmites,

Ready to pierce eye sockets and soft tissue of tripped travelers.

A scaled journey fraught with peril.

As most of life, unknowns abound, the path is there, but presents differently to each.

Some manage, some don’t.

Danger inherent and implied,

The choice to step over the threshold;

Living.