I’m a maze
countless paths
winding halls of voices
calling wanderers
to lose their way
trapped in a daze
of their choices
they thought
were freely made
I inch my way
past the archway
of each new endeavor
underneath the corpses
of slain efforts
frustration is the gate
that births me everyday

I’m frail under the crush
the pressure is too much
as a memory brushes
against the string
pulled taut I hold
and don’t let go
as Theseus enters
and pays the toll
he tugs at the rope
lowered into the center
where scarred screams enfold
the many who tried
to free me from the craze
in the inferno’s blaze

I cast the line
into the divide
from when the brute
ripped the threads
of my innocence
out with a knife
cut to shreds
between my legs
he snuffed out my light
I withered inside
I lay nearly dead

gagged with dread
I bled my childhood out
alone and confused
cruelty twisted madness
and contused
my common sense
the rays crack through
my most hermetic defense
and rescued the tenderness
with a new point of view

wants locked in a cell
punished with needs unmet
shackled to the effects
of losing myself
living in the dregs
paying in solitary days
that sped past the bends
of the unexpressed
fast held confinement
hiding in plain rhymes
they don’t see behind
my face, my skin and my thighs
beneath the waves
my eyes trapped time
in an amber cage
made with my smile

I grew my size
to blind their sight
an armored fat girl
to hide the glowing
off the inner shine
of my concealed pearl
that warmly invites
all the vampires close by
emerging bloody
from the mess
I feed them my best
through self-evidence
I viciously fight
with sharp truths
impale false pretense
and so defending my virtue
from prying lies
I spike through askew
counterfeit views

they sing in chorus
the victories of furies
his wind of the west
whispers my death
with Zephyrus on my plinth
he threatens to end me
and blossom my hyacinth
from a lover’s fall
jealously chasing me
tortuously down the halls
of my mind’s labyrinth

each turn facing
the same walls
yet noticeably different
repeating concentrically
yet unique at every pass
I devise the strategy
that will let me last
I pray I beg I plead I study the game
in how not to get lost
in the anguishing shame
with nowhere to hide
plotting my escape
with no exit in sight

it is my wound
to sense you
if even for a moment
I can trace by light
the shadow of your profile
a lifeline to revive me
back to a kindling
electrical fire
even when fully grounded
switching me on
with a start

in the grip of the intimate
blurring ends
the beginning opens my art
to remain on edge
to stay present
with every time
I close my eyes
there it is
waiting in the dark
so still
yet raising hairs
with every stirring
in the haunting

I’m quietly dodging
the stalking bull’s desire
ready to nail me
when off guard
the race is daunting
barely a step ahead
of being caught
always pulling on the thread
this ball of yarn intertwined
what’s yours what’s mine
wondering all the time
if it will be enough

desperation exasperates
with a minotaur
at my back
a hero and a maiden
follow the tracks
of my scrawl
poeting through a haze
in the dark thicket
I crawl through
hypnotic states
our cycles fractaling
like moments in refrain
turn right, turn left
don’t look straight at it
glance sideways
find the clues and the hints
or I’ll drift beyond you
past the point of no return
of analysis paralysis

because hope is not
strong enough to weigh
against the grey
for those of us
lost in the fray
the mettle of the brave
is put to test
or mauled savagely
and put to rest

hold me close
keep this lit fire
even if we are
just an ember of desire
make it linger
and tie me to this string
on your finger
so if I lose my step
I can find you
inside me once again