The Labyrinth Poem by Laurence Overmire

I stood outside looking in
And then
One step
Took me into the beginning of what
I anticipated would be some sort of
Illuminating quest
An adventure of some unknown
Latitude and longitude
Mysterious and exciting

I followed the path exactly as it was
Laid, quite evident before me
Well-worn territory so many others
Had traversed before
Breathing in the green grass
Splendor, a recent rain making the air
Wet like a moist kiss
From a beautiful maiden
Tempting me further into the
Heart of my story

As I closed into the center of the
Circulating pathway of this magnificent
Garden, I was met by a small statue of a
Youth, boy or girl I could not tell
Standing quite calmly
Naked and innocent
In that smooth Greco Roman artfulness
That conjures the perfection of the human
Form
Head bowed humbly
Peaceful and compliant
No anxiety or fear

In the youth's folded hands, waist high
Someone had placed a clump of moss
And a small bright red fruit
Plucked mindfully from some exotic
Plant nearby

I watched as a tear dropped
Or so I thought, from the downcast face
And settled into
The soil that touched the hands
So reverently

I let it sink in

But time bade me continue
The unraveling of the spiral
Backwards or forwards
I wasn't at all sure
Both seeming to coincide
Incidentally

In the winding I
Watching
Found myself, on level ground
Going
Downhill
Passing others
On their own meditative journey
Filled with the import of their own
Significant wanderings
Following what I realized
Was the exact same path, but
Oddly parallel
In a different time, at a different
Pace, yet somehow all of us
Returning to the exact same
Place

Finally, my adventure was over
The spot where I entered had now
Become my exit
And yet this was how I knew it
Always would be

I was reluctant to leave
I paused there at the edge
Ever so briefly
Feeling the consequence
And knowing the way

I took my last breath
Full of all the wonder of being alive
And I savored the moment
I said my goodbye

Then one last step
Out of the labyrinth and into
Whatever it was that eternity
Offered
A new beginning or a comfortable
End.

~ Laurence Overmire