How many times do I have to say that I’m not okay
before you start listening with your heart instead of your mouth?
Your heart, once warm to the touch, protected by briars
and a sphinx, though I thought them unreal.
I’ve tried to solve the riddle, to think it through, to answer right,
but your heart remains closed off to me and I sit through the night,
wondering how we got here, to this point of isolation.
Your mind is closed, heart unreachable, words sparse,
and yet I think to break down these walls, climb them,
push through them until I’ve found you in the
center of it all.

in the maze of your soul I discovered the center was a beautiful garden, wild, unrulely and begging to bloom in the light of another. I have fallen in love with it and am happily lost there for eternity.

That all hath fall'n away impure;
That all we thought is now unsure—
This is the final cause of it,
That which we know has gone to ****—
Yet here we stay, throughout the days,
Staring into a foggy maze.

I know the taste of rain
and how bitter herbs cut
in my tongue – everything edible
tasted and destructively processed
into a garden of memories

with paths of love to beds
of friendship and borders of vice
stakes of anger, ponds of sadness
and a smelly compost heap
of failures and wilted ideals

it sounds more orderly than the maze
it is, the web in which I got lost
of which the threads have become thin
and matte, breaking easily
in the merciless sun

that has evaporated
the glittering drops of dew
of the sky-blue illusions from my youth
and everyone calls it wisdom
that comes with age

to detach people
from their desires and last
physical discomforts
but I discovered
it's a secret

I once was on an endless journey
Of turning left and right,
There was bramble all around me, only
Nothing not alike.

Though none were up above me
I could not see the sky,
All except my inner strength,
I had been left alone to die.

Deserted by the moon and stars,
I was even without light,
But desperate to be free again,
I braved the endless night.

Time escaped me, also
I traveled a day, a week, a year,
But my body never weakened,
Nor hunger did I fear.

Even if I neared the end
I had no way to be sure,
So, I promised myself it was close ahead,
Just one more set of turns.

But the exit never greeted me
And disappointment, it grew strong
I had broken so many promises,
My credibility was gone.

I could no longer reassure my mind,
So I faced the truth instead,
I prepared myself for eternity –
And an endless path ahead.

There's so many fake passageways
In this medieval maze of mine
Monsters keep popping out of walls
And leading me in circles
To abandon me at dead ends
Of which there are too few
All these walls have twists and turns
That always end
In the same blank rock face
No matter which path I choose
I know where I'll go
I'll always end up dead
At each fairytale end

A broken maze hides inside my mind;
Revelers rambling round never find
The end - lacking signposts or guides,
They tread eternities while the exit hides

From echoing clatter to blinding roar,
From gentle pitter-patter to take no more,
Crowds mill through in groups and pairs;
The walls vibrate, as do I downstairs

Food trucks ply their bountiful snacks
Feeding frenzy, launching scent attacks;
The noxious steam combines to rise,
Waft out, confound and desensitize

Enclosed in walls impossible to climb
Trapped all together in layered time
The revelers begin to sway and swerve
Blundering on networks of frayed nerve

With no path to success or even escape
The horde begins to push and scrape
The walls - tremble, creak, quiver, quake;
The maze, my mind, my universe - break

NCL August 2019

running into the ancient stone,
going straight with every curves.
obfuscating thy own desired path,
look straight forward—
there’s no going back.

blinded by the beddazling darkness,
as it striked my body and soul,
no escape, just let it go!

trapped.
tangled.
emmeshed.