I stood upon the cliffs and wondered,
When gazing at its rugged surface
Clothed in rocks, sharp and grey,
And strands of weeds, too stiff to sway
In the breeze blown from the waves,
What lay beneath this wretched land,
Beneath the dust, Earth’s canopy;
Beneath each bent, corrupted tree.
I thought of all the caves below;
Of streams and brooks that flow depressed
Within these caverns, wide and deep,
Where starfish lie and oysters sleep;
Where small green eels may slither ‘round,
Creating foul and tainted action
Throughout the tall, deep, weedy grasses,
Guardian of the huddled masses.
My thoughts wandered through the veins
Until upon the shimmering heart
Of the barren land above,
My thoughts arrived, and fell in love
With a calm and radiant pool
Enclosed in a grotto of cryptic black
With flashing stars all around,
On the walls and on the ground.
This cavern was radiant!
Like the universe collapsed
Into a single chamber,
Which shined of gems and amber.
Who could have known of this
Beauty sleeping beneath
The bluff’s rough visage?
A lovely, petrifying image,
In which the fair is lost
To heedless eyes,
Beneath a horrid, ashen guise.