in the rigid isolation
of a fractured
geologic hollow
we eroded time
scratching away pitch
and mineral silt
fragmenting human art
from the ashy igneous
brushing away
this dust of ages
until our primitive
carving tools
had reaped reams
of reminiscence
from each wall
as high as the ridgeline

we scraped away
encrusted sediment
searching the depth
and measure
of emotive sentiment
covered by
successive epochs
of metamorphic
recrystallization

once
immutable
ecological elements
displaced now
by dissolution
rendered artifact
and fossil record
from disillusion
hereby disabused
of this confusion
which discerned
any distinction
between light
and shadow

we write
thru darkness
which often
only our eyes
are keen enough
to clearly perceive
grapple with monsters
of our own mind’s
manufacture
and manipulate
painted images
of their extinguished
memory
we are spelunking
in the unspoken world
speeding past
speleotherms
spelling out
this rich inner life
in a way
which won’t be
entirely understood
until ages after
we have abandoned
our prehistoric
habitation.