Maze

I wander lost in the maze of my life
Not knowing which way I want to go
Not knowing how to get there if I did
Not even knowing if it’s already too late
If the choices I’ve taken so far mean
That some of the exits I might hope to find
Have already been blocked long ago.

It’s dark down here between the walls
Lonely too. Sometimes I see others passing
Eagerly following their Ariadne threads
But when I seem to find a thread of my own
It vanishes into a dead end, leaving me
Crashing headlong into the blank wall
With the force of my enthusiasm.

Some days I sit still, unable to face
Even the simplest choice of forking paths.
Sometimes there are better days,
When I stride out positively. But it’s hard,
Being so wearily lost for so long,
To keep starting again, seeking new hope
And losing it again in the maze of my life.

But though the maze is infinite and dark
I am not trapped in a prison cell
Still I have the power to walk
To try to create out of confusion and fear
A path out into sunlight that I have found.
It’s dark down here between the walls
But still my hopeful feet keep walking.

I wrote this in a dark time a few months ago, but decided it was too depressing to publish. I revisited it again while going through old drafts, and thought that it did capture something very real to many people in this day and age. With the addition of the last, more verse, I feel it’s worth sharing with the world!