Categories
2024 – Winter

The Elevator

Author: Inkless

There’s the old sailor always at the port,
looking at the horizon, her only comfort.

That kid who recently found love in sewing,
his sister’s gift almost ready, he’s smiling.

The man who’s working as a gravedigger.
Seven years now, right? Yet still as eager.

Then there’s that woman. A banker,
deep in fraud, so she gets drunker.

And the toddler, just told a lie, his first.
He doesn’t realize he’s his happiest.

So there’s these five people in motion,
that can never meet, that’s the mission.

Or the world will end.

Do you understand?

Different lives, locations, that’s the key.
We’ve managed this far, sometimes barely.
You must always remember,
Your role is to be the intruder.

You’ve always done well,
but you often dwell,
on them and how they live.
You’re curious, and naive.

You watched the now old sailor,
once thriving in the seas, singing.
You watched the kid, now a brother,
frustrated with his family changing.
You watched the newlywed gravedigger
Look for someone that wasn’t just a fling.
You watched the crooked banker,
trying to be good, yet slowly losing.
You watched the three-year-old toddler,
crying over his mother’s parenting.

I know you’ve grown attached,
while I remain detached.
My role is to guide you, be the reminder.
Day and night I’ve told you: no blunder.

Or the world will vanish.

Everything, gone in a swish,
I know it isn’t your wish.
So these people you cherish,

Why are they in the same building?

It’s a joke right? You’re kidding!
How is it possible?
This is just terrible!!

The banker, the gravedigger and the brother,
waiting in front of the elevator,
which is coming, you traitor…
Inside, the old sailor, the toddler and his mother.

4

In only a few seconds the doors will open.
You can still save this! Please, please listen!

3

Make the elevator, stop, fall, destroy it!!
I don’t understand, you have no limit!!

2

So why aren’t you doing anything?!
I beg you! Why aren’t you LISTENING??

1

NO NO NO!!! STO-

0

Comments by the jury:

“In a good way, I was left wanting to know what would happen when, these people who could never meet, met at the ground floor.”

“It stays very mysterious and blurry, a bit unclear, but that’s part of what makes it great. Overall, a great piece that makes you think about serendipity, or the opposite?”