Feathers: A Book of Poetry

Meeting

I stepped
into a random person's
hallway.

The welcome mat
was nice.

Sweet,
slightly battered.

I stepped onto
the carpet,
and looked around.

The wallpaper
was brown.

Neutral,
but boring.

Then I squinted,
and noticed
a peeling corner.

Turns out,
under that brown
was a spontaneous
rainbow.

That made me smile.

The rainbow
was so much better
than the brown.

Looking around,
I could notice
a few things
this person seemed
to like.

Headphones on the side table.

Sticky-Notes everywhere.

A couple stacks of books.

A single flower plucked at the stem.

I tried to open
the drawers,
but they were locked,
and I didn't have
a key.

Maybe sometime.

There were
framed pictures
on the walls.

Lots of smiling faces.
Arms around shoulders.
Messy hair.
Shining eyes.

A couple frames were dusty.
Others, polished new.

I gasped
as one crashed
to the floor.
One blink,
and it disappeared.

I kept walking,
nearing the
window
at the end
of the hallway.

The view outside
seemed so
beautiful.

I lent on the windowsill,
and looked past the curtains
at the sight.

Yet,
something
seemed
off.

The glass
was too
shiny.

I slid
my fingertips
into the crack
of windowsill,
hefting the panes
upwards
to feel the breeze
for myself.

Along with the glass
went away
the view.

A fake window.
I never would have thought.

A safe met my gaze
in place of the window,
nestled in a hole
cut deep in the wall.

Dark
and
big
and
sort of
scary.

But what is fear
compared
to curiosity?

I visit
this hallway
a lot now.

Each time,
I noticed
something new.

A number
on the back of a frame.

A sticker
on the pair
of headphones.

A sign here
and over there
everywhere,
yet never seen before.

And each day,
I got closer
and closer
to opening
that safe.

Until I finally did.

You must want to know
what was so carefully
hidden there.

Well...

it's a secret.

But what I found out
was that
this one hallway,
one in a million,
was more fascinating
than I
ever
could
have
imagined.