The Future is a Dark Room

by Nicholas Reiner

Stuck in an elevator

I hope it’d be with you.

I’d pull out my phone

& put some music on,

loosen my tie, untuck my shirt.

The lights above might turn off,

to hell with the rescue

& the telephone. You & I

would press the 35 floor buttons

to illuminate the space

then we’d sit play hot hands,

& hum The Cure. You could lay

your head on my shoulder & tell me

you love cotton candy

how it reminds you of your trip

to Disneyworld. I’d talk about

the time I skydived with my dad

when I was nine, how proud I was

though I never bragged to my friends.

Maybe the rescue party would never

come. Maybe the elevator would

start working again & we’d stand up,

exit. Maybe: if we have

a future, in a dark room

for the first time, your body will

be orange call button shine