We crawled through a cave
That was full of blind birds
We waded through pools
That were full of their turds
It was so very dark
We could not see at all
The cave was enormous
And drippy and tall
One girl in our group
Lay down and she sang
With long, haunting notes
That slithered and rang
The cave echoed back
Like a vibrating gong
The melody softened
Dark, spooky and long
I felt like an outcast
Long-lost in that cave
I knew, to survive
I would have to be brave
I’d have to find out
How to hunt those damn birds
That nested above us
And dropped down their turds
I’d have to find out
What water to drink
The cave water sure wasn’t fresh
Like the sink
And if someone died
Would we eat up their corpse?
Would we bury them somewhere?
Or feel much remorse?
I thought of the time
When our flashlights would die
And we would be blind
Would all of us cry?
We’d live in a dark world
Of echoes and cold
Not able to watch
As our faces grew old
A life with no mirrors
A life of long beards
A life in the dark
It was all that I feared
But we simply kept crawling
And then we saw light
A hole at the tunnel
The end of the night
No one would be eating
The other one’s corpse
No one would be living
In sightless time warps
We simply jumped out
Of the cave, where we found
A pool that was crystal blue
Lukewarm and round
We splashed in the pool
There were no blind birds
We sometimes sang out
But no echoes were heard
And then we returned
To our everyday lives
Not wondering how
To kill birds and survive
And I do miss the cave
With its dark, drippy fright
But I guess in the end
I prefer to have light.
