Retire to the cave.
Try to match the flicker of mortal torch
to the flicker of the torch behind your eyes.
See. Touch what scares you so badly.
Or, since you cannot know,
choose an image.
That aurochs.
Her honed horns. Her
unendurable force of
muscle, hoof, neck muscles rigid
against her spine’s angry bone. Projectile of thunder.
It is the cave, the beast, and inside it all
what you may perceive as you—and death. Elect
to jump somewhere in the confines
of the darkness and binding rock.
Or elect to face the animal and die.
30017 was a bad year, run of seasons
an election of fears you are well evolved from.
30016 will be a better year. Light up
the cave then and let shine out the new. The rising
fire of your torch ignites the eye of the aurochs
and she elects to move.
• Image from Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams
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