This poem was published in the Autumn, 2007 edition of “Inspirit: The Literary Journal of Baughman Memorial United Methodist Church.”
for Uncle Don
The wife said, One of these days!
She said it as she held on to the porch rail, steadyin’ herself
That new church she’s been going to, they put a labyrinth out back
The wife says it’s nice, but I ain’t gone yet and don’t intend to
The weather’s been too nice to waste it wandering around in circles
But today, though, it commenced to raining pretty good
You’d’ve thought a fella’d have more than a dollar-store umbrella in his truck
But the wife insisted on washing my gimme cap
So I elected to get wet
and go check it out. Here’s what it’s like:
You start at the beginning and follow the edge
I don’t know how you get lost walking in a straight line, but I did
Three times
Still you just put one foot in front of the other
It’s not a maze. There’s nothing for you to think.
You just walk and walk until you wind up in the middle
There was this rock there, so I sat on it
‘Cuz it was there and all
The rain left and the whole thing was blazin’ with sunlight
Then I walked out
I didn’t notice nothing I’d seen on the way in
I thought I was facing the wrong way
but I still went right the whole way out
The rain’d stopped, so I got back in my truck and opened the windows
I drove home the same way I’d come, back to my wife
Who had laid my ballcap out on the porch rail to dry.