the spelunker at the cave lip checks
        her gear off
her forehead light concentrated pearl
                on each hand
a glove snug tips cut round belted waist
        tools pick-ax
clamps a rope ringlets bound she puffs out
                clouds shivers
as the cave mouth sighs sedimental
        damp and climbs
in down the rough tunnel-chute she comes
                to a cliff
precipice her pearl light diffuse V
        penetrates
a few feet she anchors rope begins
                to repel
down and down and down a slip and down
        a three day
festival faze she wakes haze struggles
                to part dark’s
dress folds wrapped around her every
        muscle leg
works against leg works against leg works
                against leg
the last veil toed off skin sloughed shroud shed
        a pulled off
luminescence one hand jerks around
                the waist roll
to gaze at porous walls illumined
        by fallen
pearl light crevice cranny shadow fed
                by prostrate
body ballooning illumined back
        lit she thinks
monotones like Braque’s gray and bronze cubes
                notices
violet cream sighs widens eyes her heart
        beats in time
with the living stone spe-lunk lunk-spe
                spe-lunk throb
with slitted light pictures dance in red
        and ocher
fragments wall hiss depicted growl grass
                winds speak hoof
beats rain din moon phases sing rise rise
        touch our eyes
drawn over eyes rise cradled by her
                shadow she
traces a circle inside a square
        inside a
circle inside a square cave inside
                cave inside
cave inside cave she climbs up climbs out
        into night
emerges into dim silver light
                now to climb
that hole punched askew in the starless
        mustached sky