She slipped into the void
Unseen
Unnoticed
As she fell into the in between place
The place no one
Ever looks

Her feet have worn a track
In the dirt
Going all directions
Endless footsteps
But always
Always
She finds herself where she started

Five thousand steps to the west
There is a waterfall made of glass
Frozen in place
But with all the ripples and foam
It should have
She had slapped her palms against it
With no result
It was good
Thick
Glass

Beneath it, there was a hole in the rock
Once she had worked her way in
And pulled herself
On her stomach
Through a thin tunnel
That ended suddenly a fair way in

The return trip hadn't felt worth it

Four thousand steps to the south
There was a field of wheat made of bronze, blowing in the wind
The stalks glimmered in the sunlight
The never ending sunlight
And were hard
Cold
To the touch
Eventually the shining had drawn her in
And for weeks she'd been doubly lost
In an endless plane of light
And frozen life

She remembered
Following a splitting trail
In three opposite directions
Never turning
Never curving
But finding herself at the start again
Each time

Seven thousand steps to the west
There was a rocky hill
And a single bird
Gray and white
And Alive

Months
She'd spent months trying to coax it near her
And then to sneak up on it
And then to tire it out
Whenever she got too close it leaped
Up into the sky
And circled endlessly
Sometimes it shrieked
A call no one ever answered

Just to see it had been enough
Once
But that was so very long ago
Now she just wanted to touch
To hold
To feel the warmth that no longer came
Off her own skin
The gentle feeling of a heartbeat
Against the bones in her chest

In the center of this moment
At her starting place
There was a circle
Worn into the dirt
From so many returns

Now nothing urges her on
But fuzzy memories
And an aimless desperation
She no longer knows what she is looking for
She no longer feels

What child is this, who wanders?
What curse brought this girl here and faded from her mind, and her mind with it?

Who says the universe is fair?