Lascaux

An exercise I was given at a poetry workshop this weekend: Complete the following similes; use one to write a poem. The simile here was: "He entered the cave like..."

He entered the cave
like an atheist creeping into church--
scoffing, reverent, nerves on edge.
"It's just a hole in the ground."
At the edge of the flashlight's beam
figures beckoned, half-human, half-animal
half-silhouettes in black and ochre.
In the silent heart of earth they whispered
You will never understand us, nor explain
away the mystery we are.