Pas De Deux

Minds unchained

Float like ghosts

Traversing a karst river

Single file, silent

Hidden within geological caverns

Unseen indigo, caliginous ribbon

Sharp aquatic claws

Carve winding trails

Into pliant limestone

A Dantean spiral

Descending

Rickety wooden steps

Macabre and threatening

Disturbed

Bats whisked by

Mere hairsbreadth away

Shuddering at the thought

Of them tangled

In my curls

Arriving in the lowest circle

Roughly anchored

To a rotting platform

Stalactite palace unveiled

No corners

Just curves

In all the right places

Crystalline water gleamed

Teal-tinted looking glass

I was Alice

Perched on the edge

Legs sifting through

Heaven itself

Curiouser and curiouser

Slipping slowly

Below surface serene

Rocky cheshire maw

Swallowed me whole

In one smooth gulp

Casting off my swimsuit

Unable to bear artifice

In this holy rabbit hole

Penny laughed at my

Indecorous wildness

Spectres lingered

For a spell

Swelling around

Still breathing (for now) flesh

Eidolon partner

Benevolent Terpsichore

Led an underwater dance

Motion sure and true

My tangled choreography

Of neurons and pathways

Is nearly impossible to trace

But here I left behind

Artifice and costumes

All Thought, reason

In favour of

Mad joy