The drop, the cables, the compacted
Air, the confined space, the mundane
Muzak, the sharing air with strangers,
The brushing of someone’s jacket
Next to yours, the overheard
Conversations, the lack of control
With no driver on this mission.
No one in charge, a mob rule
Between floors, with only flashing
Buttons and a recessed ceiling
For comfort. You eye the red
Emergency sign, then the Pull
In Case of lever. Perhaps you should
Have taken the stairs, maybe this
Was not the right day to rise
Upstairs on a thin line of electronic
Otis machinery that has not been
Inspected since 1976. Your chest
Feels tight like a fist and you bide
Your time, imagining the outdoors,
A green lawn, the purple sky,
A Carpenter’s slow song, and
The hope of the next day just
Beyond your heart’s dull reach.
Click here to read Millicent Borges Accardi on the origin of the poem.
Image: photo by Jason Dent on Unsplash, licensed under CC 2.0.
Millicent Borges Accardi: “Practical Love Poem #8” is from a manuscript called Practical Love Poems (aka love poems written by and for practical people) or, as the critic Elizabeth Willse remarks, pieces “that capture love in ordinary moments. Tenderness, friendship, companionship. No matter where my own head and heart are, I like to read and hear stories about love that let real life in.”
A final version of #8 was written during the quarantine, about how love evolves and adapts — particularly under duress and difficult circumstances. Inspired during a time of global difficulty, the writing came about when Covid hit and found me (as I am now) a sole caregiver for my dear husband Charles who lives with heart failure and the long-term aspects of waiting for a transplant. That period of time was a consolidation of feelings and kept reminding me of an elevator’s confined space, safe yet dangerous, with a kind of everyday practical humor, as seen in these lines, “You eye the red/Emergency sign, then the Pull/In Case of lever. Perhaps you should/Have taken the stairs.”
Millicent Borges Accardi, a Portuguese-American writer, is the author of four poetry collections, including "Only More So" (Salmon Poetry, Ireland), and the recent "Quarantine Highway" (FlowerSong Press). Among her awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright, CantoMundo, Creative Capacity, the California Arts Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts (Covid grant), Yaddo, Fundação Luso-Americana (Portugal), and the Barbara Deming Foundation, "Money for Women." She's recently published poems in Laurel Review, The Journal, TAB, and North Dakota Quarterly.
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