Standing in the Elevator.

• Author: Pratt, Minnie Bruce
• Position: Poem

Standing in the Elevator There's the awkward moment when the elevator doors close, and we try not to breathe as loud as the big animals we are. No words, because there's too much to say and nothing for our hands to do except punch the down button again. We don't need some fancy research to tell us how we want to be together, standing over a table strewn with puzzle pieces, lifting one jagged edge to fit against another, to match the piece of blue sky you just made. Sure, we're in here because we need the money but it means nothing by itself. Like the day the power failed, some of us stuck in the elevator, and the building burning from the top down. The cleaning guy had just his bucket and a squeegee blade. He jimmied the doors open, he forced the steel doors apart, in the vague light from the windows five people could see enough to find...