<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a0 <\/strong> Hedge maze a quarter mile square. Tracking you into the dusk, At last the center of the maze. I realize I\u2019ve been screaming <\/p>\n William Doreski<\/strong> recently retired after years of teaching at Keene State College in New Hampshire (USA). His most recent book of poetry is The Suburbs of Atlantis<\/em> (2013). He has published three critical studies, including Robert Lowell\u2019s Shifting Colors.\u00a0<\/em> His essays, poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in many journals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 Hedge Maze Hedge maze a quarter mile square. Everyone who enters it terminates in screams. Even cops, determined to rescue someone, lose themselves for lack of clues and fail to exit. You\u2019re braver than me, and walk in alone, leaving prints in fluffy new snow I\u2019m bound by habit to follow. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13719"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14090,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13719\/revisions\/14090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHedge Maze<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nEveryone who enters it
\nterminates in screams. Even cops,
\ndetermined to rescue someone,
\nlose themselves for lack of clues
\nand fail to exit. You\u2019re braver
\nthan me, and walk in alone,
\nleaving prints in fluffy new snow
\nI\u2019m bound by habit to follow.<\/p>\n
\nI feel pressure build as if I dove
\ntoward the bottom of the sea.
\nMisty figures loom and dissolve.
\nWeak hands pluck at my coat.
\nI can\u2019t help anyone, but follow
\nyour trail despite the failing light
\nand vapors dense enough to snuff
\nthe nuances of my breathing.<\/p>\n
\nThe passage that has led me here
\ncloses behind me, rustling stems
\ntoo thick and brambly to penetrate.
\nThe sky drapes over my shoulders
\nwith a post-orgasmic sigh.
\nYour footprints terminate before
\na marble plinth on which a crystal
\nof the clearest quartz reclines.<\/p>\n
\nfor a while now, already tired
\nof my noise. I can\u2019t stop even
\nas I peer into and then step inside
\nthe shimmer of the crystal and feed
\nwhatever lives inside it;
\nand I realize you lured me here
\nto dissolve in prismatic colors
\nthat have threatened all my life.<\/p>\n