The Maze Speaks, by Ann Power

Each turn confounds
to lead
backward or
forward, though
no pole star
tells.

They created me
puzzle
to their pleasure,
palindrome
to imagination,
and I became
the Game. 

Smoothly I reward
entry
only to perplex
motion,
chambering passage
with advancing
closeness.

Each night by lynx light
the trees move
half a league;
signs wind their arms,
directing the opposite,
and compasses
point slender needles
to noon.

In the narrowing
gloom,
in the gradual
constriction of walls,
I can hear
Terror
beating the still air
with wings
in frantic
fury.

–

Ann Power is a retired faculty member from the University of Alabama.  She enjoys writing historical sketches as well as poems based in the kingdoms of magical realism.  Her work has appeared in: Spillway, Gargoyle Magazine, The Birmingham Poetry Review, The American Poetry Journal, Dappled Things, Caveat Lector, The Copperfield Review, The Ekphrastic Review, The Loch Raven Review, and other journals. In addition, Ann’s poem, “Ice Palace” (The Copperfield Review) was nominated for Best of the Net in Poetry last year. 

© 2022, Ann Power