Once in Babylon there reigned
A King who built a Labyrinth –
It was a marvel of the ancient world
He eliminated secretly its architect designers
That he alone possess the arcane knowledge
Concerning its guile and powers of alienation
One day a desert nomad visiting the city
Was tricked to be the ‘fly’ to test this ‘web’ –
And there for days demoralised he wandered
Until in despair he called on his soul’s creator –
By this intimacy his intuition guided
As if invisible angels led him to the exit –
The King a-mazed – the nomad then addressed him
With quiet dignity ‘One day
I a humble desert man will help you…
…And you perhaps may try my labyrinth – the wild Sahara’ –
For there within his wars the King was captured –
But the nomad set him free to fare for home
He wandered in a circle wide and then a circle small
King of his own cosmos he had never felt the need
To contemplate the guiding stars nor make a compass of compassion
So he circled and spiralled
Down like a stricken fly
Before it drops and dies
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
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