I enter, though reluctantly, into this dank cavern
Leading deep within the earth.
Into the darkness I go, sensing a twisted maze.
I venture into the unknown.
I pause with trepidation with each step I take.
I feel a coldness and aloneness in the deathly silence.
I lose my way in the blackness of no-where-ness:
I don’t know where I came from so I can’t turn back:
My direction is lost so I inch along blindly.
I am descending now: my feet begin to slide in wet rock:
I grope the walls for balance;
The walls are slippery and help not.
Suddenly, I fall through space, twisting and turning finding nothing to grasp.
I begin to see a bright light at the end of the tunnel.
I feel a sense of peace and I stop resisting gravity.
Weightless now, I glide to the exit.
As I come nearer to the end,
I know that all will be well: my pain is gone.
—Kathleen Ellis Faulkner
