TimeSpace Maze

Too much dancing? (asked Jocasta,)
Out of breath?
Come with me.

Grab a tumbler of water from the table
as we plunge into a rainbow maze of
colored cloth hanging on invisible filaments-

-through the maze of shifting silhouettes
grappling, coupling, scrumping, cuddling, tickling.

-through the maze, startling-
but not interrupting--they continue, smiling-
three writhing lovers.

-through the maze to the outer wall
lined down its length
with doors.

Come with me through this door
to the haze of smoke hanging over the crowd
in an old British pub, where four mop-topped boys
are singing up-tempo songs about love,
and Margaret is there, front row, center,
singing while the other girls scream.

Come with me through a door in the back
with a big red sign:
"Warning! Zero Gravity Beyond This Point!"
and into a long, transparent tube,
the thinnest layer of
what-we-hope-to-be-much-stronger-than-glass
separating us from vast Nothing
and the stars so far beyond.

Come with me, freefalling for just under a minute
to the door at the far end,
then through (stumbling now
under full weight) and into a casino
bizarre in that the tables
are brilliantly lit
by the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Olivia is here, toying with the boys
as singlemindedly gleeful
as a cat scampering after a pen cap,
and a man you've seen before only in monochrome
(and then with a sword in his hand)
keeps the women riveted
on other things than envy.

Come to the edge with me
and look down, down, down
at rolling hills and glimmering lakes
and the tops of clouds
lit from above and almost solid-looking.
Look up to the ribbed curve of fabric
stretched over a frame a thousand feet long.

Come with me through more doors-

-to a workshop which smells of welding slag
and molten metal, where Cassandra and
some old guy from New Jersey
whip up the finishing touches on a go cart.

-to a library where Zia and a psychiatrist
and an expert at the short con
compare and contrast their
observations of the depths of self-delusion.

-to a domed arena where everyone is
six times as light on their feet
and Elizabeth is cheering on one of the teams
competing on a floor of grey dust
in a bastard child of
hockey and lacrosse
where a flick of a stick
with a curved basket on the end
can send a ball two hundred meters effortlessly.

-to an auditorium where Emily hacks her way
through a bloody slapstick play, leaving
the audience roaring and wincing.

-to a muggy Memphis evening
where a cowlicked boy
with a spastic grind of his hips
assures us: "It's alright, Mama."

-to the kitchen where we can grab a snack from Fiona,
who rests on a barstool, munching fresh carrots
with a look of pure rapture.

-to a circular room at the top of a tower,
the periphery ringed with windows and doors...

...now, you.
You choose a door
and take me through.