The jungle is an unfriendly place
It doesn’t welcome you at all
In fact she tries to deter you from entering
Her hell
Full of slips and falls
Wild animals
and biting ants
That are waiting for you to tumble into their jaws
Darker darker it becomes
The deeper you brave within
Then suddenly you’re lost among
The leaves and the mud and the wet
The depths of the floor of the jungle
Pull you down and cling its sticky arms to what it can grab
The black leeches latch onto your succulent skin
Unsure of what to do, you stand still and scream
They can’t hear you though, so they don’t let go
The bright green snail moves along a bamboo pole
Put into place to help you hold yourself up
From slipping down a steep slide of mud
Deeper deeper into the jaws of hell
And the sounds that surround you
They are menacing
Great whoops and shrill whistles
A ticking sound
Like a clock on a countdown
A timer
A bomb about to go off
And we trail on and on
Following our guide
A man we just met who
Doesn’t even have any shoes on
Yet we trust him
As he uses a machete to hack away at the branches and overgrown trees in our pathway
If you can call it that
Leading us into the jaws of hell
Slippery tree trunks
And roots try to trap our bewildered feet
Don’t look down
Just don’t look down
Take it step by step now
Rocky chunks of stone
Are an invitation from the devil on the dance floor
A moving world beneath your feet
All balance is lost
And you are reminded that nothing is permanent
There is no stability
As the rocks give way and they greet
You with a great knock
Sliced up fingers and bruising brings the blood boiling to the top
We lift ourselves up
And clasp hands over wounds
And move on as we
anticipate the next fall to come
Careful step after careful step
Leading us into the jaws of hell
And at her centre when the trodden path gives way
A great strong wind almost blows you away
Confusion as we arrive at a grey fog blowing us back
Pushing through
Over slippery rocks
And a wild stream
To find ourselves
Faced against
An ongoing endless God-like strength
Of white wash
A sea of water
Falling from the land above
The tap turned on
And forgotten about
A bathtub overflowing
A tsunami, an ocean
Flowing
Endlessly
Continuously
Impossibly
Rushing, rushing
The threat of crushing
Us to death
We gaze up
Powerless
The motion
Absorbing all emotion
Exhaustion from the pilgrimage
Forgotten
Filled now with the energy
Of the waterfall
To push us on
Back through the doom
Climbing faster
On the journey home
The sun is setting now
As we emerge out
From the jaws of hell