In Zone R
You push a green button and wait for assistance.
In Zone R there are two doors
With combination boxes on the handles –
One for men and one for women.
In Zone R you hear a voice summoning an Associate to Zone R.
You hear this voice every sixty seconds.
In Zone R
A small disheveled man appears
Who tries every combination of numbers in the universe.
(You know that he will fail but you root for him anyway. . .)
In Zone R
You begin to question
If you should wait a little longer
Just because you have already waited so long,
So you wait
Until you don’t think you can wait any longer
But the longer you wait,
The more sense it makes to wait a little longer.
In Zone R
The disheveled man speaks:
“Something stinks here
And it’s not me.”
In Zone R
You wonder if you have just been insulted
Or if the disheveled man
Is speaking in metaphor
About the universe
Or just Zone R.
You wonder what will happen
If you push the green button again.
Will it negate the time that you have waited?
Will another small disheveled man
Appear and monkey with the numbers?
Is he the Associate?
Finally a young man lets you in with a key.
In zone R you think:
If I ever write a poem about zone R
How will I end it?
GARY LINDORFF, TCBH!’s resident poet, is an artist, musician, poet and counselor / dream-worker who practices shamanic techniques, and who lives in rural Vermont with his wife Shirley and two dogs. His website is BigDreamsWeb