Labyrinthine (Thursday Doors)

photo by S.W. Berg via Oddments

“Our steps trace a map,
fictions, in place of answers.”
–Sun Hesper Jansen, Danse Macabre

I am dancing with myself, or perhaps just an invisible partner–a mirror image—the opposite of me.  None of us has a recognizable form.  I have learned not to look too closely at what isn’t there.

Yet each day I rearrange the unseen patterns, constructing a new facade.  I pretend that I am who I don’t appear to be, folding everything that doesn’t fit anywhere into a cabinet of hidden curiosities.  Boxes and boxes of me that will never be revealed.  A riddle that repeats itself, over and over, inside the shadows.

unlike birds, my bones
are dense, unfeathered—gardens
in a secret vase

Frank at Dverse asked for a haibun that considers the Japanese idea of Mono no Aware–transience, pathos, the ephemerality of life. I thought the endless mirror photo from the Thursday Doors Writing Challenge, above, by S. W. Berg via Oddments, fit that idea well. I’ve also included the kigo word of gardens for Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday challenge.

And some art from past Kick-About prompts.

You can find more doors, as always, and lots of responses to the Writing Challenge photos, at Thursday Doors, hosted by Dan Antion.