The Cave

I

My shadow friends are back today

Shifting and sliding in their usual way

The light that animates each of my friends

Can extinguish life and bring it back again

I hear their voices soft and obscure

Conversing with the walls and floors

They never speak to me, I know

It’s a quiet existence, but I’m never alone

These rigid stone walls that enclose me

Ferociously binding

Conserving me kindly

Insulating entirely

Allow my shadow friends to come and find me

While restraining the alien world behind me.

II

I have always been here

But never was

Almost lost in a shadowy dust

All my life I have been blind

A world of beautiful color confined

My safe rock walls nothing but a disguise

A ruse that kept me from looking behind

Illuminating life’s true design

My shadowy friends turned to smoke

Not living creatures but surreal ghosts

The light that brought each one to life

Residue from a blazing fire

Disjointed Agony Tangled Fury

I can finally see but my vision is blurry

Leaving a world that never existed

Like closing a door that has no hinges

My brain craves to leave this new existence

But my soul is stubborn and resistant

III

Like the pierce of a needle

Breaking through skin

This translucent reality has settled in.

I look back and see the life I’ve wasted

Squandered moments spent absently waiting

A world that exists without walls

Demands we leap expecting to fall

And in free fall we can achieve flight

Fear in darkness obliterated in light.