Oliver de la Paz

Labyrinth 57

The boy in the labyrinth knows that to guard against the physics of the dark, one must make one’s self small. Each body in space is accusatory. Mass attracts mass—to remain insignificant, the boy must hold his limbs closely to his core. Certain coefficients lack the details of what or whom they multiply. Large beasts in the darkness are, therefore, amplified. This the boy knows: the sounds drawn inward into the ear pull the breath of the landscape into cellular meanings. The gravity of the beast’s strident song draws in the boy’s red threads. Draws in the boy’s heartbeat.

Oliver de la Paz is the author of three books of poetry: Names Above Houses, Furious Lullaby, and Requiem for the Orchard. He is the co-editor of A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poems and the co-chair of Kundiman.org's advisory board. He teaches at Western Washington University.