The Flooded Maze

We wake up discombobulated

With no clear path to follow,

The only constants are the walls

And the water just below.

Our aspirations still aglow,

We venture further in-

Only to find a series of halls

That seems to never end.

Searching for an easy exit, but to no avail

Scouring the winding paths, our hope is more curtailed

We’re trapped in the flooded maze.

***

I trudge across the gleaming tiles,

Slowly sinking like a wreck.

Swimming through the rising tides,

Gently lapping at my neck.

I feel my vision stabilize,

And I know where to go-

But a fog slips over the iron cliffs

I’ve come to see as home,

And a brand new sense of heightened danger starts to settle in

As the gloomy vapors make this game impossible to win

I’m lost in the flooded maze.

***

Splashing rings through the entire night

As we try to stay afloat,

But dawn brings on a hopeful sight

To our ever shifting moat-

Drainage gates are opening

And the waterline recedes,

Leaving behind exhausted bodies

And stains of sickly green.

We gather bearings thankful to return to solid ground,

But evening sends a brand new flood and now we're panic bound

Forlorn in the flooded maze.

***

As novelty fades to normalcy

The waxing moon tracks our days,

And we stumble upon resources

Floating adrift in the haze.

But no amount of wet scrap metal

Or dampened logs and rubber

Satisfies our thirst for freedom

Or makes us work together.

Leaders burn like fossil fuels and clever sparks burn low,

We keep our sanity through dreams of arks and rescue boats

Waiting in the flooded maze.

***

The others begin to lose themselves

With promising routes running low,

It’s only a matter of matter and time

‘Til there’s nowhere left to go.

And the darkened skies bring leery eyes

As danger breeds distrust,

When faced with deadly certainty

Acceptance is a must

Though some still hope that in this life the endless search will end,

Others settle for salvation beyond the final bend

They die in the flooded maze.

***

Villainy is a commonality

Around these starlit metal lanes,

With soggy matches and denim flags

Survivalism takes the day.

For every length of rope I give

Only an inch is lowered,

And everyone I save from drowning

Only sinks me deeper.

And factions form like planets do when gravity draws in

The swirling lost debris of space that yearns to settle in,

Danger haunts the flooded maze.

***

Echoes of whispers and stolen screams

Linger in ghostly despair,

Survivors sneak through the misty crime scenes

Glowing with burgundy flares,

Shambling over scrappy platforms

Above the murky depths

Over hastily manufactured stairs

With waves approaching the steps,

We reach the shores of an abandoned dead end corridor

In narrow eyed discretion with a plan to fight for more

We’ll take back the flooded maze.

***

Maroon joins the palette of colors

Staining stainless steel walls,

What’s written in blood seeks of saving it-

Preaching peace in the backdrop of brawls.

Amid the disorientation

And the fearful lashing out,

Our message trickles into brains

And hope begins to sprout.

We all just want to make it through this evil place alive,

So why not coalesce and make a strategy to thrive?

We truce in the flooded maze.

***

The bitter winds here once whispered fear

That crept into all of our hearts,

But we can make bridges from barriers

Stronger than all of their parts.

We wring out our sopping clothes

And shake our dripping hands,

To build a new society

That can at last withstand

Relentless rising waters and a gloom that never fades,

Even as we shiver in the ominous wet haze,

We thrive in the flooded maze.

***

That old eerie feeling never leaves

These labyrinthine passages

But teamwork makes our dreams work faster,

To minimize damages.

We hike along through vacant aisles,

Though nothing seems to change-

This place extends so many miles

We can’t escape it’s range.

But we won’t stop exploring, though we’ll never reach the end,

We’ll fill our lives with movement sideways 'fore we all ascend,

Accepting the flooded maze