Like spelunkers deep in the cave

of well-intentioned trespass,

enthusiasts scrambling over basalt boulders

and slithering under calcium curtains,

like novice explorers pulled by flashlights

down dark spiral tunnels

through slick limestone openings

to the next opal pool

in another magnificent cavern,

the route invisible as silt,

escape, and the need for it, out of mind,

emboldened by past conquests,

we have become enchanted

with a new raison d’etre.

With over-confidence matching

misplaced courage, exhilaration echoes.

Rationalizations tumble in a rock slide

from our pounding hearts:

there is no other choice

how can we lose

everything depends on this

But even as we splash

our excitement like limey water,

we begin to hear the slow drip

of too easy, smell the stale air

of too fast, too far.

One by one, we realize that once in,

trapped by our choices

we don’t have a clue how we got here

or which dimly lit passage

might be the way out.

 

Hashtags: #CaveRescue  #Thailand  #scuba

Newslinks: CNN,  BBC

Audiolink: Soundcloud