Fortune of Life

The paradise I found that woeful day,

brought unforeseen fortune upon my life.

It all began whilst running like a chased rabbit,

bouncing this way and that through the jungle.

I had heard of a place the locals dared not go,

there I hoped to escape deaths wrought iron grip.

The locals here did not accept the outside world,

my futile attempts to modernize them caused this day.

The jade river appeared as if summoned by my need,

the majestic beauty near stole my thoughts of clarity.

The locals would travel here for the healing power,

but far from the cave where the river came to an end.

In the folklore of the peoples past, that cave held great evil.

I had once approached the entrance, black fear held me back.

Fear now drove me into that place, spears grazed my very skin.

The dark so black your thoughts take form with open eyes .

I feared that I had met my end for a spear had run me through;

it seemed to disappear as the darkness engulfed my very thoughts.

My feet splashed through the warm water as I crashed into the cave.

The stale air, cooler than the water, caused a mist to cut the light.

The pain from the spear left me weary; loud waters kept me leery.

Looking back I could see light filter through the fog, voices echoed.

Then without warning my foot was swept away taking my body,

searing pain radiated out of me as the spear was pushed out.

Floating, nearly dead and only half conscious the water swift,

The roar of power consumed my thoughts; was it deaths voice?

Water began to cover my face, filling my lungs with liquid death.

Then a fall began, it was only a few milliseconds before darkness.

I woke sprawled out upon a rock in an eerie blue glow; gasping.

The coughing lasted a long while, near unconscious from a lack of air.

Remembering the spear, my hand shot to the place I had been pierced,

Not a single sign of the spear of deaths grip that had pierced my side.

The iridescent light was from within the water, eerily pretty.

This must be the golden place of transition, from life's grip to deaths arms,

yet the reality of this unfathomable place was far too tangible to be the end. 

It was the moments while contemplating life and death I found fortune.

I found a patch of natural light, radiantly glowing from under the blue.

I swam to the place and dove to see from where the light had come.

A hole in the rock, through it I swam, to come out into the ocean blue.

Years I searched but could not find the cave but life, my fortune it gave.