like a walrus

Last week I traveled to Carlsbad Caverns with Sr. Kathi and the Michigan girls. It was a fantastic walk through the imagination, and it revealed to how difficult it is for us to take in brand new sights--as humans, we must relate something unknown to our previous experiences. The fear of the unknown creeps in when we cease being able to make those connections, leaps between known and unknown, and can no longer process something new. We then also become terrified of change.

Our stroll through the speleothem castle of the caverns convinced me that the four of us are still staving off xenophobia, armed with an endless supply of similes:

like cauliflower popcorn rib bones,
a seven-layer forest carved
out of bone snow wax ice,
a ballerina's butt,
that pointy rubber thing on the end
of an old man's toothbrush.
soda straws draperies
chandeliers theaters for
dolls giants lions.
like a walrus.
yes, like two dancing walruses.