Labyrinth, by Stacey Murphy

While only the stars watch
I walk the labyrinth
Palming the rock
Inhaling pine scent from the trees
And worm scent from the morning rain
The clouds now a memory
The sky bright tonight
Glinting off a shell on the path —

A shell.
And I smell something else
Sea beneath my feet
A mile down, maybe more
The remnants of life before
Bones of the tiny beings
And the giant creatures,
The ones who would have engulfed me
Laid my soul bare
Divinely ravaged.

And yet I walk
Back and forth on the path
Into the middle, leave the rock
Back out again
A slower unraveling
The stars so old
Their light taking so long
To hit this shell on this path
Everything winding back
To the need for patience.