Elevator Journey

But man needs to be triply protected

by humility if he is to eat the bread

of angels without risk.

-C.S. Lewis, “The Four Loves”

Busy crowds hover

Among still shadows

People in the know

With angelic shoulders

And sophisticated faces

Converse very loud and vulgar

To impress inoffensively

Almost indefinable way

An unenduring bore

Yawning at my feet

Clutched fast my bag
Eyes quickly dart down

And keep my feet

Off the Invisible Line.

With uncolored cellarage

And attentive air,

You can cover your ears

And shriek

Or roll up the base

And vanish

The blah

Will fly past vertically

Like a fallen angel

A blur

In the sky

We are all Outsiders

We have tasted the bread

And all the world is falling

God willing

We shall get in

And steel was at their backs.

They had to go.

-C.S. Lewis, “Narrative Poems”