The Valley of Many Caves

Well, anyway. Collect your gear.
We’re going to have to hike through here.

It’s funny the caves look like eyes,
Since there’s so many eyes in them.

Pay no attention to the sounds.
Forget about those poems for now.

You could never imitate them.
Pay attention to the shadows

At the corners of the cave mouths.
Don’t they look more or less the same?

Everyone in this valley’s kin.
If you hike through quickly, they blur,

But if you notice, cave by cave,
Not only are the caves distinct,

Each a differently shaped, ragged,
Natural mouth, more or less altered,

But even their shadows differ.
Every cave has its own grouping.

Neighbors appear more similar,
But you’ll sometimes see sets of eyes,

Very distinctive, watching you
From one mouth, and then not see them

Again until almost the end,
When they crop up in a stranger

Population, as if by freak
Coincidence. No telling, then.