Labyrinth 48

The boy in the labyrinth is led by his heart. Its thick systolic lurch. Its clear call from the carotid’s shunt. Somewhere the minotaur refuses to say hello. Somewhere lost moths beat themselves to death against a torch’s reflection. The actual light somewhere, which is a silence between the boy and the beast. That understanding. That repetition of silences as when a light is switched on and off. The two of them quiet in the dark, listening to their own hearts pump, law, law, law. The boy thinks, beast, if you can hear, this is my heart. It thrums like a shirt-full of plums plopped into a basket. Dear beast, listen to my valves strike. Listen to them open.

Author of the article

Oliver de la Paz is the author of three collections of poetry, Names Above Houses (SIU Press), Furious Lullaby (SIU Press), and Requiem for the Orchard(U. of Akron Press). He is the co-editor of A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry. A founding member, he co-chairs the advisory board of Kundiman, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of Asian American Poetry. A recipient of a NYFA Fellowship Award, and a GAP grant from Artists’ Trust, his work has appeared in journals like The Southern Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, North American Review, Tin House and in anthologies such as Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation. He teaches at the creative writing program at Western Washington University.