Mammoth

Word count: 362

Joey entered the mouth of Mammoth, carefully placing his feet on the sharp stone steps and descending delicately until he felt the smooth cool clay of the cave's bottom. The smell of earth was more pronounced in the morning. He inhaled the clean scent and exhaled a content sigh. Passing the barred grill preventing access to the left tunnel, he walked across the entrance cavern and, pressing his back firmly against the rock wall, shuffled around the ledge that led to the south, the cave he most loved to explore.

He had to duck through, hunching forward, continuing into complete darkness. The tunnel was tubular, wider than tall, spacious enough that he could outstretch both arms, but he knew intimately the overhanging stalactites he had to avoid. The bangs against his head were less frequent than when he first met the cavern complex, but still he turned on the headlamp.

Once he reached the innermost chamber, lit by the noon sun streaking through two small natural roof windows, he sat, and began to write:

Dear Mammoth,
I heard about the fire.

I know you were born from earth's pain, but could
only imagine the delicate life that you guard
-- the giant, stalwart trees, the sleek mountain lion,
the gay, excitable squirrels. These I feared would
simply burn.

So I stayed. Far away. But my dreams
did not give me solace. The landscape behind
my eyes was red and I dared not to walk
through the corpses of cedars, dared not to look
at an ashen ruin that haunted my dreams.

But I came. Today, I saw my dreams
had been imagining things that weren't.
And the cedars stood. Beams
shooting skyward to announce:
This is a sanctuary and fire shan't
simply burn.

Thank you for the crisp, cool wind's caress.
Thank you for the deep, dark earth's embrace.
Thank you for being true, a testimony of things
That through fire are born.

Then, through the lit windows, Joey saw that the sun was descending and the sky was turning through shades of the sunset. He made his way back to the entrance and, placing his feet firmly on stone steps, he ascended.