The Cave
Someone strikes a match. Briefly
the earth is illuminated.
Then it goes out, just the drifting flare of memory.
But our eyes hold it—for a while
it will be all we can see,
the dark will stream with it, the nerves
will salvage back the light until they can’t
and we are bodies again.
Notes
George captures a profound sense of lightness by reducing the vast, heavy darkness of existence to the fragile span of a single struck match. It fits seamlessly into July’s philosophy, illustrating that clarity does not need to be a permanent, solid monument; instead, it is found in the fleeting moments our nerves work to salvage the light after it vanishes. By showing how the mind can weightlessly carry a drifting spark through the deep dark, the poem reminds us that our return to the heavy reality of being mere bodies is not a defeat, but a graceful settling back into the earth. . #poetry #lightness #summer #light #existential