Stifle

[Delta40]

Caught between a rock
and an elevator
Sardine packed white collars
Staring straight ahead
as if they have detected my fear
and are too polite to say so.
Feeling cramped, contained
Constricted throat
Little room to move
as I descend in waves of nausea
to the banal elevator music
Shallow breathing
Loosened tie
Increased heartrate
In the midst of fading normalcy,
My Stifle monster appears
He snuffles in my ear
My eyes bulge between scented bodies
He smothers a laugh then growls:
'do you suffer from claustrophobia where you feel life in general is a crowded space and you face the certainty of death?'
Panic erupts
like a beehive under attack

[Haunted]

Very vivid. Yuck. Just one question Delta...you wear ties?

[PrinceMyshkin]

Indeed a hair-rising experience. The elongated line worked just fine.

[hillwalker]

Yes, great poem Delta. A claustrophobic bee - imagine it. Almost as bad as a bee with hay fever.

[Jerrybaldy]

I loved this Delta. The stifle monster should have been comic, but wrapped up as he was in your nightmare scenario he was anything but. Putting the panic and phobia in a corporate surrounding of normality added to it's effect. You placed me there.

[Delta40]

Thanks Jerry.