The Cypress Maze

by Fiona Valpy

In the middle of life’s journey I found myself in a dark forest Where the straight path was lost.

But two things made me ignore the warning signs. One was the simple optimism of youth. Perhaps some would call it naivety.

But you were never clumsy. You were meticulous and methodical in everything you did, your dependability the counterbalance to my creative scattiness. We laughed it off though, and I thought nothing more of it at the time. Looking back, I think you already must have known something wasn’t quite right.

It was a war of attrition. A war we had no hope of winning. No matter how determined we were to fight it, the outcome of that war was never in doubt.