There is a place beyond the tawny grass and the scattered trees
It is a place void of flowers and of bees
A place where the lion and cheetah do not reside
It is a place where those unfit won't survive

The sun won't pierce it
and the waters only collide
the brush is too thick
even the trees don't coincide

Dare to explore this place
you will see
in the heart of darkness
no man can be free

they say...
effort
                           is not without reward
darkness
                           is not without light
beginning
                           is not without end

but how can we know that the reward will be worthy?
                                        that the we will not become lost in the dark?
                                        that we survive to the end?

It is the certainty we lose
that enslaves us in fear
that we may not know
where we might go

                                                  but we have faith
                                                  in the award of life,
                                                  the rising sun
                                                  and the story's end

He was a miner

Deep under the earth he sought
a gem he could not keep
worn and torn he went down
pickaxe in hand

little did he know
that it was his day
fate would greet him with a kiss
the last he heard was a hiss

His broken body was embedded in the earth
where tear drops fell
but tomorrow again
the earth will hear the miner's bell