Elevators I

By Donald Britton

An enormous list:

coming and goings, nights and mornings,

births and deaths

and rebirths and second deaths

and little lapses like grace notes

where sadness surges in:

sadness surges in,

a passing-windshield light-effect

on the ceiling.

Would you prefer it some other way?

I’m versatile.

I’m hungry.

I’m hot.

I’m not really sad either.

I’m happy, it’s just that this happiness

isn’t the happiness I expected or sought

and for a time I confused

this happiness with the sadness

I thought I was experiencing.

I feel a lot better now.

Oooh. That should give you

an indication of the improvement.

Oooh, there it goes again.

And again,

only I didn’t say ‘Oooh’ this time.

I can’t explain it,

but it feels terrific,

like a totally fulfilled infatuation

or a California Lifestyle apartment ad.

Copyright Credit: Donald Britton, "Elevators I" from In the Empire of the Air. Copyright © 2016 by Donald Britton. Reprinted by permission of Nightboat Books.

Source: In the Empire of the Air (Nightboat Books, 2016)