Down to the Storehouse of Amenti I rose
Curling a sleeping kitten
Striped grey with a pink nose
I was charged with it’s protection

Through witch’s warm cottages
and priests’ church perches
I met a dark-haired guide
A wanderer lost in the circle
Of a troubled spirit’s tides

Followed he to the escalator
I chose, rising up
Through the forbidden fruits of mankind
Material wealth is perishable goods
And poison to the mind

As the stairs slid into a ramp
A stranger pin-striped with lies
Caught me in his paws and smiled his canines
Scared, I said “I must follow my guide.”

But in this brief encounter
The direction of him I surrendered
And turned about on a lost head and stumped feet
But he was nowhere in sight.

So I chose a new path
Gathering my lace skirts to my knees
And risked my sake on a roll of Fate’s dice.

Followed my soul to the base of another stairwell
This one with wooden roots pecking at my feet
Faired I well and higher I rose
With each new well in between

Four wells I found, one going down,
And landed I next to some people.
I changed the rods to make the cross
Easier to bear for those people.
And next I found where one good deed abounds
Another is sure to follow...

And since I was sure
That my guide would be seething
Sick with waiting for hours,

Directions I sought
From a golden-braided broad
Thick she is with Wisdom-giving.

She said, “Travel to the Fourth Floor
And seek nothing more
Than the Stairwell that takes you to the bottom.”

I passed up a ride on a star ship
Docked, and shaking in its power
Children bubbled with laughter
As I watched it lift off from its tower

I passed up the last gate-
The Stairwell that led to Heaven
Four-stride across and glowing sky-blue
Like the light of the star-flowers found in my garden
It called to me like the tomb.

But too strong was my longing
To return to the beginning
Where my guide would be delayed

So I turned from the staircase
Straight into an elevator
Where a young operator escorted me away

Blasted to the bottom and shown the door
To face life’s routine boredom
To match what was written
In his sour expression
Even as by his side I left the store.

So was this a test by the Lords of the Cycles
To see where my loyalties rest?
Or was this a message
Like what one sees in the mirror
About the illusion of fear?