ASHLEIGH YOUNG grew grew up in Te Kuiti, a small town in the King Country. She left to study English literature at Victoria University of Wellington, and recently completed an Honours degree. She has participated in several creative writing workshops at the International Institute of Modern Letters, and has had poems published in the literary journal Sport.

Young comments: ‘When I was ten my class went on a trip to the Waitomo Caves, a set of underground caves below the farmland, not far from the town where I lived. For the many tourists who visit Waitomo each year, the main attractions are of course the caves (through which you can walk, or go floating on a tyre through an underground river, or be taken out on a boat), glow-worms (tiny beetles that glow in the dark), giant wetas, waterfalls, and dense native bush. There are signs around Waitomo village that say “Adventures, naturally!” My class was taken on a walk through the caves by a tour guide. One of the tracks inside the cave was set against a very high ridge on a wall, and at one point as we edged along the ridge, our guide – gleefully, I thought – switched off the lamps so we would be able to see the hundreds of glow-worms on the walls and roof of the cave.

‘Apart from the tiny flecks of light given out by the beetles, the darkness was absolute. The air was the inverse of air, heavy and cold, a dead weight. It was impossible to measure distance, or recognise who was standing on either side of you, or know where your next step would end up – you could barely know whether your eyes were closed or open. My classmates made hooting noises or screamed or laughed but gradually became quiet. I was safe, but one part of me did not know this, and I was relieved to get above ground. I wanted to be like the guide, who knew how to navigate around the complicated darkness – once you knew the geography of a place like the cave, it seemed to me, you’d never get lost anywhere. I wrote “Visitations” remembering this sense of disorientation.’

 

Poem: Visitations