The Forest

Brownish hue dictates my eye no color hides their fear
Flowers faded dull and cold now bleached by atmosphere
Creatures twisting under trees, huge monsters soaked with rage
Hidden deep below our earth a frightening bygone age
Their shepherd came now long extinct, a huge primeval man
The three men filled with disbelief just turned as one and ran

Dumb with astonishment and amazement
Which bordered on stupefaction they fled the forest
Instinctively they made towards the Lidenbrook Sea
Discovering a rusty dagger on the beach
And the carved initials of the explorer
Before them on a slab of granite

They realized that they were once again treading
The route of Arne Saknussemm
Following a short sea journey around a cape
They came ashore where a dark tunnel plunged deep into rock
And venturing down their progress was halted by a piece of rock
Blocking their way

After deciding to blow their way through and setting the charge
They put out to sea for safety, with the explosion
The rocks before them opened like a curtain
And a bottomless pit appeared in the shore
The explosion had caused an earthquake
The abyss had opened up and the sea was pouring into it

Down and down they plunged into the huge gallery
But on regaining their senses found their raft rising at tremendous speed
Trapped in the shaft of an active volcano
They rose through the ages of man
To be finally expelled out on a mountain side
Riddled with tiny lava streams

Their journey was completed and they found themselves 3000 miles
From their original starting point in Iceland
They had entered by one volcano and they had come out by another
With the blue mountains of Calabria in the east they
Walked away from the mountain that had returned them
The frightening Mount Etna