Morning Escalator – A (sort of) concrete poem

I stepped
onto the escalator
this morning. Minding my
own business, I stood there, hands
on the black, rubber rails and followed the
traditional protocol of escalator riders everywhere
keeping my eyes ahead of me and not wandering to the sides.
Minding my own business like all people on their way to work do every day.

Suddenly,
        it
                felt
                        like
                the
escalator

S t o p p e d . 

It didn’t, of course, but it should have because from out nowhere, without
warning, the person riding a step in front of me did the unthinkable!
Without a “Look out” to those standing behind him,
he let out a giant sneeze that shook the walls
and left an invisible cloud of spit germs
that had nowhere to go but into the
person riding behind him
who was me.

(Need Purell)
        Thump-thump
(Need Purell)
        Thump-thump
(Need Purell)
        Thump-thump
(Need Purell)
        Thump-thump

© 2010 by Michael Fishman