The Purgatory You Smell

The Purgatory You Smell


Imagine Purgatory,
you know you've been there,
when you were standing in
a crowded elevator that stopped
at every floor of a 30 story building
and you were forced to listen to the
dreaded elevator music for more than
the span of a minute of your life, to long.
And perhaps someone chose that exact
moment to let a silent but deadly one loose
within the confines of that small enclosure.
So there you stood with all of those bodies
pressed close against you,
unable to breath anything but the stench
no one would ever claim as their own
and all were to polite to say anything about it.
Time seemed to stand still all at once,
ticking by so slowly that you wanted to scream,
but you didn't.

And so you, like all of the rest,
suffer in silence the sweaty bodies,
stench, and cheezy music
from within the confines of Purgatory,
dying a slow and painful death until finally
the doors open and fresh air flows in,
and you think, 'The stink is over!'
So you depart, swearing to yourself
never to take an elevator again.
The stairs have become
your new and best friend.