These Dreams of You

~ ~ ~

They hide in the hedges when the palace closes. Has anyone ever hidden overnight in the maze? She swallows the child in her arms so as to keep her music quiet—Jasmine, I saw you peeping—and then when night falls she unfolds herself to let the child out, and a tune smokes skyward. They lie in the center, the girl in the crook of the woman’s arms, and watch it drift to a star.