Subterranean Love

I sit alone on the shore of this dark cold lake

and let the lantern hiss engulf my thoughts

Deep in crevices random chips of quartz

and apatite catch the light and send it flying back

And once in a great while

a single drop falls from one of the huge

stalactites above and rides the windless air down

To fall into the lake the bell-like plop resonating

for long seconds while concentric rings of hunchback

water slowly crawl across the surface and scuttle up

at last upon the shore

Smells of immortality hang inside my cave

Rock icicles frow forever in inches measured every

thousand years

While the lake below holds the mirror of Narcissus to the

living rock gazing trapped upon it from above

the madness comes and softly steals my mind

the secrets of the night a' seeping down from the

complacent world above

Turning out the lantern I scream and scream

while echoes tear around the walls

Goblin women softly creep from the hidden

cracks of the earth and fall upon me

Their cruel nails and teeth are all about me tearing

tearing at my clothes and flesh

Raping me in the deep places of the world

Until I can stand it no longer and the healing darkness

without enters me and I know no more

I awake bruised and spent to bring the truth

of light again to my cavern

Its shadows flee beyond my reach

While caught in mid-flight another diamond teardrop plunges

to the water

The lake intrigues me flat and still as smoked unsilvered

glass

Crawling to its edge I scan its depths but nothing shows

my light obliquely bouncing off the deep reflection

of the roof

I strip my clothes away and touch my toes to the water's

liquid edge

Its cool touch caresses my feet

the ripples running away with the news

Emboldened I go slowly forward

My body starts to disappear below the mirror's surface

The cold smooth rock beneath my feet the only assurance

that they are there

The icy water climbs inside my bones

my groin and belly flutter 'til they are lost as well

At last I stop with water at my lips

the limestone taste confusing on my tongue

The light from shore is dim and cold

blind fish nose here and there about my legs

Looking up

a single drop from above

strikes me on the forehead and wets my hair

Diving

I surrender it to the lake

which promises me the secrets of the deeps

Christopher J. Cramer

October 19, 1983