The Biology of Caves

Gold cherry
Poem of the week

By onemorething

Fri, 17 Apr 2020
  • 4769 reads
16 comments
 

Pale troglobites have no need

for colour or shadow,

blind cave fish have abandoned their eyes

over aeons, attuned only to the messages

of movement murmured in subterranean lakes.

Some are white angels who can climb the fury

of a waterfall, others are transparent enough

to reveal the adaptations of their biology -

as I imagine the dull pulse of my own heart,

visible and palpable from behind my ribs.

I have changed too in undisturbed survival 

when anchored to the long wait of sunless pauses,

and I have sensed the body of a past self

in the night beside me, felt the density

of its existence: awake, the cut quickens

in the moment of an empty reach, as in caves,

where, tested by the tentative legs of isopods,

the stone remembers the wounds

that water has sliced in slow rivulets.

Yet there are long-departed starlit memories

tunnelled within me, that seek retrieval

from their interment because even when there is no light,

I remind myself, neither to make a friend

nor an enemy of the darkness.

 

Image of a blind cave fish from wikimedia commons:

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FMIB_51868_Blind_Cave-fish,_Typhlichthys_subterraneus_Girard_Mammoth_Cave,_Kentucky.jpeg

Certificate U
Poem
Unclassified

Comments

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

I love the juxtaposition of the adapted creatures and the adapted life of the narrator - beautifully done

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thank you! Am very happy you liked it as I feared I might have pushed the weirdness level too far. Thanks for the cherries. :)

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This is our Poem of the week - Congratulations!

It's also our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day

Please share/retweet if you enjoyed it as much as I did.

 

Submitted by onemorething on

That's an amazing surprise, thank you for appreciating my oddness. Has cheered me up. :) 

 

Submitted by luigi_pagano on

An interesting and revealing poem about the the physiological adaptation of those hypogean creatures, the blind cave fish, to darkness which revives memories of one's own metamorphosis.
Stylish as ever.

Luigi x

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks Luigi. That's very kind. I particularly like being called stylish. :) And yes, the creatures who have adapted to darkness are very strange and interesting, deep sea creatures fascinate me for the same reason. Thanks for reading it and your lovely comment. Rachel x

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Hi Rachel,

I can only echo insert's and luigi's comments. I admire the way you're able to weave together your own thoughts and those of these mysterious cave fish.

Inspiring as always.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by onemorething on

 Thanks Jenny! Glad you liked the mysteries of cave fish. Thank you for reading it. :)

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

I love this, it's so classy and clean. 'Sunless pauses' and 'blind cave fish'. It's lovely to read and pure quality.

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks so much Jane! Am chuffed that you liked it. Thank you for reading it. Rachel :)

 

Submitted by littleditty on

Lovely to read - will have another go... Inter(n)ment or interment? I love rocks and stones in a poem...all the elements here...for the remembering, the ending patient and detached enough to feel wise words indeed! The cacoon of a cave poem - all these three fishes know what they're doing! (Wondered what a deep lake equivalent of a symbolic butterfly in a poem might be? Electric squids?! THey are great though!! I wonder if anyone has written an ace electric squid poem? I digress! Sorry :) Enjoyed your poem!)

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Oh good! Am happy you liked it. I did mean interment as in burial. I love the idea of electric squid!! Thanks for  reading it. Rachel :)

 

Submitted by agnosticnun on

Such beautiful language here. Enjoyed.

Kristi

Submitted by onemorething on

Thank you, am happy you enjoyed it. Thanks for the kind comment and reading it. Rachel :)

 

Submitted by valiswaverider on

I like the idea of exploring other creatures sensory experience, how we adapt and how our environment forms us in such a rich ground for the imagination

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Yes! Me too, I really enjoy writing from the personified perspective of strange things. And yes how we adapt to our conditions, very much my train of thought. Thank you for reading it and leaving a comment. Rachel :)