For hours, I paced from one recess to another, pushing against boulders of adamantine soil, feeling around for an earthen escape hatch, wondering how I managed to fall in. I tried hard to remember, but the sensory recording was missing. Maybe someone had shoved me in this hole and buried me inside.

Another hour, trying to think outside the box (while simultaneously imprisoned in one) brought me no closer to escape.  I should be smart and persistent, like a character in a movie, capable of finding a way out of any situation with a little wit and duct tape, but instead I was tired and dull.

A nauseating span of empty time filled the cave, my body discontent like the earth in its cold sweat.  The crack sucked back its halfhearted radiance for night.  Another day.  Another night.  I would die if I failed to get out. 

I clawed at the cave floor, tears soaking my hair and making mud of the dust on my face, until it encased my hands in gloves of clay. The rocks slicing my fingers, the rotten smell, the centipedes cascading down my arm suddenly lost their aversion.

"He is like a man using a candle to look for the sun" ~ Rumi