PASSAGEWAYS

Crowded corridors funnel herds,

Queue the roguish and the errant,

Transition the docile, and steer wayfarers.

Narrow hallways, dark alleys, and

Subterranean tunnels echo

Times marked by wanderlust and

The aimless search for rooms or exits.

Passageways, random

Sequels of blank walls, rails,

Or roadside brush

Hooked together with a single thread,

Looped around rooms,

Carried onto the

Next stairway or fire escape,

Onto the next foot path

Through briars and trees

Towards imagined ponds.

Each day is spent more in passage

Than in reflection or contemplation.

Rooms and destinations are obstacles that

Bend, reflect, or absorb the thread

Dragged along wherever footprints have

Fallen and been erased by others corralled

Into the same meat packer’s pen.

© cmheuer, 2017