Mount Skull

Heroic age of Antarctic exploration
A craft defies the seas alone
Long voyage of discovery
To a continent unknown

On board, only veterans of adventure
Seasoned experts in the field
Vying to become the first
To expose what's unrevealed

Approaching rugged
Barren and white shores
Enveloped in the black of night
A grim, glacial wasteland
Their final destination in sight

Provisional encampment established
Now fixated on the goal
All spirits high
To unearth the buried
Hidden secrets of the pole

Wind-lashed and broken
By extreme temperatures
Glaciers and crevasses
Blizzards to endure

Plodding through persistent fog
Poor visibility
On eroded horizons
Looms an impossibility

Massive range, monstrous peaks
Menacing, fragile
Howling dogs, crew in awe
As they behold Mount Skull

Fears cast aside
On to an unveiled passageway
Battered and beaten by the storm
Shelter found inside the cave

Astonishing Interior
A labyrinth unfolds
Repulsive rotten stench
Sinister shadows

Descending, sweltering
Phosphorescent walls
Troglodytes, dreadful shrieks
Echo in huge halls

So long

Only one, may escape
No companions left
Running from that grotesque thing
Lurking in the depths

Decades passed
Since their disappearance
And then his frozen corpse was found
A body, well-preserved by severe frost
His logbook, had fallen on the ground

An expression of terror
Covers a tortured face
Telling the tale of death and pain
The mountain shaped
Like a human skull
Well, that mystery will always remain