Re: The Cave

From: Bill Orr (billbernice1_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 06/03/04 

Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2004 00:46:00 GMT



-- 
http://home.earthlink.net/~billbernice1/
"Matthew Montchalin" <mmontcha@OregonVOS.net> wrote in message
news:Pine.LNX.4.44.0406021404530.28662-100000@lab.oregonvos.net...
A good poem, Matthew.  I did'nt know you alread had a poem named "The Cave".
Now I'll have to call mine something else.  Maybe "A Dark Hole in the Side of a
Hill"
Of course, Leonardo Da Vinci had a little thing he called "The Cave" also but I
think his was more prose than poem.
Cheers
Bill
 Kentucky has a cave wherein
>       a Boy Scout troop sojourned;
> where through some gaping jawlike grin
>       they'd squeezed on through and squirmed,
>
> and made their way, and did obey
>       their Troop Master's word as heard-
> but come what may - they'd lost their way -
>       and, lo, they had lost a third.
>
> And dark as death they felt the breath
>       of drafts that passed them by
> when one by one, they thought of death
>       and who might come next by,
>
> as losing light, they'd lose their sight-
>      and batteries long since spent,
> without which light who knows who might
>      perceive the ways they went?
>
> Their Master to the Troop then said,
>       'Observe just who goes first
> for one of three may now be dead
>       we've hardly seen the worst!'
>
> A hundred boys were in the troop
>       when one by one, each enters
> but crawling through a muddy loop
>       they'd lost two dozen members-
>
> And turned around, within the ground,
>       was when one thought to shout,
> a flashlight there he'd surely'd found
>       though it had flickered out.
>
> The Master calling cried 'Roll Call!'
>       and they did, one by one,
> positioned by a limestone wall,
>       again, they'd lost someone.
>
> Now, thirty nine remained there in
>       by the light that looming flickered
> where others were, who knows wherein,
>       though thinking a joke, one snickered.
>
> And spreading out, they'd joined together
>       detecting their leader's light;
> when some of them did think it better
>       to put out the other's light.
>
> A fight ensued and fists did fly,
>       and knapsacks opened fell
> and from them batteries did lie
>       in places none could tell.
>
> Soon twenty nine had twenty five
>       dim flashlights there to share,
> and hoping that one might survive
>       one Scout did think to swear-
>
> He used his lungs to swear 'By God!'
>       -by that oath that kept him going-
> when fear within him chewed and gnawed-
>       he heard a river flowing.
>
> That gurgling rushing sound appears
>       to come from us behind,
> and though it seems to sound quite fierce,
>       we'll follow it though blind.
>
> We'll go down there, we'll taste the air,
>       we'll wade our way back out,
> though others there did think to swear
>       they'd had their share of doubt.
>
> But then their Master stumbled down
>       a limestone slope beside
> the path that took him tumbling down
>       into it dark and wide.
>
> Engulfed, he gulped, and tried to float
>       but soon was also lost,
> when those who stood there thought to vote
>       that they might not be lost.
>
> And having but one flashlight left,
>       no batt'ries fresh remaining,
> the troop that stood there could have wept,
>       or could have cried, complaining,
>
> when one of them said, Tapping sounds!
>       By tapping, we'll survive!
> We'll slam our hammers to announce
>       we're still down here, alive!
>
> And having hammers took to hit
>       the limestone walls there so
> and so did hit - until a bit
>       of the ceiling fell below.
>
> Stalactites cracked and seemed to groan
>       to fill the empty black
> when then, unknown to them alone,
>       another delivered a whack.
>
> 'No more, no more,' they tearful swore,
>       'Don't slam upon those walls!'
> When rocks descended to the floor
>       to drown out their last calls.
>
> And to this day, they're all down there,
>       a ghostly place entombed
> that Boy Scout Troop that dared to swear
>       they're all as good as doomed.
>
> Kentucky has the coldest caves
>       and the longest ones around
> but some, some fear, appear as graves
>       for those the Boy Scouts found.
>
> The Cave
>
> (c) 2004
>
> Matthew Montchalin
>
> Permission Granted to those who include this copyright notice.
>

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