In the Labyrinth

In the Labyrinth
by Deborah Walker

Sun baked mud-bricks encase
the remembrance of light in this
mortared embracement.
So long ago I fixed my determination
to hide my blended face
from the scorn of people who
would shine the flickering lights
of their delighted disgust upon me.

Now I have passed into myth.

But today, into this dreary, dusty dream
comes the scent of a man:
sand and sandalwood and scepticism.
Can he feel my endless animal breath
perfuming these lacklustre walls?
Does he seek my honey, hybrid kiss
light as a floating memory?
Turn my hero, and turn again
in the labyrinth of my unbelievable solitude,
until all reason leaves you.
And you can believe, once again, in monsters.

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First published in SilverBlade, 2009.

* * *
Deborah Walker loves dreamy, dark poetry. Her heroes are Christina Rossetti and Jacqueline West. Find Deborah’s poems in Scifaikuest, Dreams and Nightmares, Paper Crow andChizine. She blogs at: http://deborahwalkersbibliography.blogspot.co.uk/