Threshold seal drags across the tile

while hands turn back against the dial

Ominous roar sounds in cavernous stairwell

As paranoids leap to their penultimate farewell

Over sound barrier wall the interstate never dozes

but by lesser degrees (or so one supposes)

Antiseptic corridors, dim industrial lighting

the veil across loud TVs and couples fighting

Garbage cans spill beneath exit signs

to some better place it’s been consigned

Yes the refuse escapes, these memories erase

But we? We are stuck here, never leaving this place

There are no means for this fantasy to import

upon your experience, for realities fall short