June 18 – 21, 2022
As I looked into the labyrinth
I first saw spider webs on door hinges.
This door was not opened regularly
or if so, the mechanical chicanery
was greater than known engineering
since it must have slid past silently
without agitating potential monsters.
I wept when I stepped inside the door
saw the early tread I must trod
across: people lying broken, arms
legs lifted, left helter-skelter, heads
or skulls in felt caps or coonskins
nonetheless dead, moldering brains
or slick bone shards, depending
on whether they had lain there long
enough or no one had kicked them
recently.
We steadfast ones lay
here as we would rather lie, hard
against the kick and its tomorrow
thinking we’d rather shine in Sun
even if its light had departed us
gone around the planet to another
ruin offering better penetration
better illumination since this dark
was too strong for me and any you.
I wish I could say we exited but can’t.
