A clearing. And there it is. Pond-like but rock rather than water...until people appearing near the edge break the illusion and it becomes a wall of boulders barely up to their knees. Concentric barriers and paths.

A group of kids bursts into the space. They climb, balance, jump, or sprint around the pathway. Come on. You’ll lose. A boy goes all out, using a stiff restraining arm to overtake his older sister. I am the king of the maze!

The labyrinth insists on interaction. No nautilus shell, no bobbin’s rapid climbing and descending thread, it teases, tantalizes. I’m taken almost to the goal, then thrown back out towards its edge. Travel clockwise, anti-clockwise. Repeat, repeat.

Once I have reached the heart, the whole course lies before me in reverse. Seven hundred steps. Three score and ten.

her flaring skirt...
oh to be Mirka Mora
when I grow up

Publisher’s Note:

Mirka Mora (1928–2018) was among Australia’s most treasured and revered artists, renown also for her bohemian personality. She created a variety of works in a range of forms: drawing, painting, embroidery, soft sculptures, mosaics, and doll making, as well as public artworks including murals and an Art Tram.

Details available in these articles (links retrieved 12 December 2021):

Mirka Mora: From Holocaust survivor to the matriarch of Melbourne’s art scene, an incredible life on display in exhibition by Hannah Reich in ABC Arts & Culture (13 March 2021); and

The Woman Who Stitched Her Way Into Art History by Dr. Sabine Cotte, University of Melbourne (27 September 2019)

Alice Wanderer

lives in Frankston, Australia. Her haibun, a patchwork of responses to her local environment, have appeared in Presence, Bloo Outlier, Drifting Sands, Failed Haiku, and World Haiku Review, with more forthcoming in Modern Haiku and Contemporary Haibun Online. Her translations of the haiku of Sugita Hisajo were published by Red Moon Press in August, 2021.