When All Words Fail

When all words fail
I reach out and behold you
spirit stretched
redefining what there is
in the cave
of total darkness

Before we wake up
completely
without defenses
in the precious
Aboriginal knowledge
of fright – the protective
constructions

In the mind the process
begins shedding this skin
my metamorphosis
almost at once
interposed by torch-light
the moment’s flare
burns on my retina

Here again and again
my tryst with the spirit
of the cave painters
was focused latent
In fear, in reverence,
in pride images
there own and beyond them

there is something,
a triumphant uttering:
a longing and sympathy
to comfort you,
in the shadows, I am here,
when all words fail.