Slocan Sunday: The Sky, the Mountains, the Lake, the Village, the Creek, and the Labyrinth....

Why the labyrinth?
Most artificial
Symbol for a range
Of nature's puzzles,
One exit only,

Only one way through,
By rule, by fiat
Tenebrae, how us.
No task not human
Is so predisposed.

Our punctured circle,
Spiraling inward,
And in the middle,
A dead end, full stop,
No way out but back.

We have shaped these signs
In every culture,
From ochre on rock
To stained-glass windows,
To circles in corn:

Perfectly linear,
Symmetrical, false
Problems of escape.
We draw them as we
Draw faith: with no help.