Issue 7, Winter/Spring 2009

Cave of Real (Deep , by Elizabeth Kate Switaj

this is the point where it's not about arms
                            to wrap a body
   between you and the cold
that shivers you
even as it holds
                 water that grows
stalagmites up to columnize stalactites
                (& limestone all to die & live
by its accumulation
law

     this is the bend
after you stop fearing dark
              still scramble scraping knees
              to yellow light that just won't stretch
    down from fissured roof
                            your ropes could never reach

this is the chamber
that echoes your heart
where it's about the hand
that can distinguish ventricle from atrium
 ,stand between you and sharp walls
yet let you feel cave moss
& that mineral bath that adds
layers

to you
if you stay
in this real cave