The Allegory of the Cave

Way out in the swamp, way up in the light
An allegory lived, he was looking a fright
An armory of scales, long jaws made to bite
Long, powerful tail - he was ready to fight.

He looked from the glare, he look here and there
But he saw wherever he looked that nowhere
Did anyone anywhere seem to, well, care
To dare to slip into his watery lair.

He got so ahungered he went to a rave
And whipping his tail, produced quite a wave
And not quite realizing the recourse it gave
It came in back at him, washed him in a cave.

But the cave was not black as he looked all about
There was a light at both ends, yes, there wasn’t a doubt.
But this only confused him, so making him pout,
“I don't know which way to go in or get out.”

So going against that of most of our sense
He went through the cave, and downward went hence.
Then he saw all before him men shackled and tense
And up over about him a big stony fence.

A fire gave light, an eeriness glowed
And cast on the walls he saw vague and shadowed
Images of models, by the fence line they flowed
But behind the fence, footsteps, produced as men strode.

The allegory was nosy so upward he went
To learn of the footsteps his only intent
But on seeing men carrying the models, he bent
And began to realize what the shackled men meant.

He climbed o’er the fence and scaring them all,
He bit with his teeth and he tore with his claw
And slammed with his tail them against the wall
And he climbed back out into the cavern’s main hall.

Then the allegory sat while picking his jaw
And wondered a little at that which he saw.
Everything seemed to be from a great law
That had at its base a very great flaw.

Then he looked to the men, in the shackles they sat
They were all afraid, knew not where they’re at.
Their world had all vanished, eaten up - just like that
By a giant allegory, who'd left not a gnat.

Pity overtook the allegory for a while
So he thought and he thought, then his thought made him smile.
So he unchained all the men and lined them up single file
Figuring it was less frightening than laying them all in a pile.

The allegory could have brought the men into the light
To show all the men they’d been fooled by the night.
But instead he gave in to his stomach’s great might
And ate each of the blind men with one single bite.