A Mystery With No End
I have been an explorer all my life.
It is one reason I don’t have a wife.
There are few places left to explore.
All has been seen by man before.
Word came down of a hidden valley.
In South America, a jungle alley.
Smoke was seen during an over flight.
Otherwise, it would remain out of sight.
So, off I went with my usual crew.
What we would find, no one knew.
The valley was narrow and overgrown.
Easy to see why it was never known.
With ropes, we fought our way down.
Using machete’s, we reached ground.
A flat floor with a river going through.
Barely enough room for the crew.
We found a path and followed it.
Continuing, though the forest was thick.
We came to a village of sorts.
Buildings that seemed to distort.
No one seemed to be around.
There were no tracks upon the ground.
Suddenly, we were surrounded by them.
They were known as the ‘Leopard Men.’
The medicine man could speak English.
How he learned it made me squeamish.
These people had no outside contact.
This valley was their only tract.
They worshiped a mysterious leopard.
The medicine man was like its shepard.
Somehow, he knew that we were coming.
English ‘came’ to him. He wasn’t funning.
“The leopard knows and sees all.”
He said it with pride, like before a fall.
“When we leave we will remember nothing.”
He told us that without any fussing.
He seemed to control all that happened.
He showed us a special map then.
I will take you to the Holy Leopard.
Only I know the way. I am his shepard.
The next day we set out, map in hand.
With the very bizarre medicine man.
After half a day’s hike, we saw a cave.
Way up the side of a cliff in the shade.
He said: “That’s where we have to go.”
I said: “I see no path, you know.”
He said: “We will all go up at once.”
Then he gathered us all in a bunch.
All at once, we all floated up to the cave.
“What the hell?” I heard some rave.
“The leopard brought us all up here.”
The medicine man didn’t think it queer.
“He is inside, around to the left.”
“He is waiting in a natural cleft.”
We went on, and soon, we were there.
We saw a large leopard sitting in a cleft.
He was silver, or maybe black? Just flecks?
He looked like a leopard, then again, he didn’t.
There was something we saw within it.
His eyes had indescribable depth
If you stared too long, your pants got wet.
There was something about those eyes.
They seemed to, literally, hypnotize.
We heard him speak within our minds.
“I read the minds of every kind.”
“I know all about all of you already.”
“Your favorite dish is Italian spaghetti.”
“What are you?” I asked in amazement.
“A visitor from the stars.” His gaze a squint.
“I am stranded for the time being.”
“Others are coming. Then I am leaving.”
“I can tell you all about myself.”
“You can compare me to one of your elves.”
“To you, I seem mystical, or magical.”
“Actually, I am not that radical.”
“However, I cannot allow you to keep the memories.”
“They could become an impossible threat to me.”
“After I am rescued, your memories will return.”
“There is much that you will learn.”
‘Someday, your race will reach the stars.”
“They will know that their ancestors met ours.”
“Things will go much better that way.”
“Your knowledge of us is better for that day.”
We had very little to say.
We learned much in the coming days.
Then, we set out on our way home.
As soon as we left the valley, we were alone.
We had new memories then of what happened.
Years later, our memories had a rapid retraction.
We could remember it all in detail.
We wrote books and articles about each tale.
So, the knowledge of ‘The Holy Leopard’ went out.
Taken in by the world, without doubt.
Our knowledge advanced man rapidly.
Off to the stars, with a cat to see.
Our ancestors will join the galactic federation.
With insight from a visitor from another nation.
May this story be recorded in history.
Yet, much of it will remain a mystery.
—————————————-R. W. Johnson—–(2016)