THE CAVE

It was always there.

The mountain

just concealed it

with its rock.

What remains is

the gaping hole,

the darkness

that moves haltingly

about the day

like a mouth

full of anger and hunger,

that swallows

everything

in its path

with a punishing

silence. Its sole purpose,

if you can call it that,

is to stitch itself

shut, silence

the sadness

once and for all

so it can know a sleep

larger than the mountain

it once called home.