When you lose your footing,
you might just lose yourself, slipping
deep into an unchartered womb of rock,
straddled by walls too sheer or too wet
to climb. There is no "other way out".
Several of these spiders are poisonous,
but not deadly. The rats know better
than to get close. Glow worms are
too pretty to eat. Bats shit on you.

Belly-up on the cool floor and smelling
like a dead fish, you think
of your poor, tired mother, your
thick-skulled brother and
your crotchety old cat, who--you
suddenly realize--never liked you
and will probably piss
all over your memory.

When you starve, know this: the body
enters survival mode to protect
its most vital organ. The heart
settles in its sac as time slows
down; hair and nails halt
their growth, cell-division
suspends. With only water, you may run
for days on emergency energy reserves.
But when those deplete, you deflate,
exhausted. Out of fat, you begin to eat
away at muscle. Even your heart
shrinks. Nothing is left
sacred.