By Jennifer Haig
Here you will find no walls of stone, nor roofs of leaves nor floor of bone.
Follow the path and pull the door, you know the way your feet are sure.
Each step you take will lead you on, past endless depths where hope is gone
past winding stair to cathedrals high, whose eaves are nestled in the sky.
Or caverns wide with open arms, concealed within their outward charms
Lurk dangers you could scarce imagine. See the few to who they happened
Are scattered there upon the ground, a reminder serving memory-mound.
Hasten forward and do not tarry, for luck and love and the Virgin Mary
Will not be your comfort still; falter now and it’s all for nil.
Race as the river through the gorge, flicker like fire in the forge
And rush to meet the oncoming tide, the cliffs behind you – with nowhere to hide.
Go on! And do not leave the way, to stray is death, to cheat is to decay
Until slowly you are but shell of once-was, joining the never-has-beens and might-not-because.
Be not afraid of the hands of fate, to err is human so shed the weight
And carry not your past into your future, it has no power over you dear creature.
Time however, does not hold its attack. You realise this truth; you cannot go back.
The places you have tread are no longer yours, they belong now to those who will come before
And after yourself, but yet not again. The maze is a loop that has no end
And never repeats the same thing twice, not one hair on a head, not one blink of an eye.
Every turn is a decision, every twist a choice. And in it all there comes a voice
It will whisper guidance, it wants what’s best, feel it come from within you inside your chest
Speaking soft songs of slumber and sleep, you feel your eyes close and your body grow weak.
The journey is ended, you sit a spent husk as all around you turns to dusk
Which softens the light of the world beyond, a world you no longer feel you belong.
As you depart, take one last look back, retrace your steps, recover the track.
See time spread out through the grey of your eyes, eternity and nothingness are your prize.
