The Psychologist's Waiting Room

The door has not opened
we wait in ambiguous limbo
suspended between hope and avoidance.

Old magazines vainly screaming their promises
cannot prevail against the void we touch.

In filtered light we sit
gently ignoring each other.

Not yet exposed beyond the door,
past posing as accomplished and smooth,
not yet talking,
past shallow words
no longer in the moving world,
we imagine the door opening.

Waiting
not as the clock ticks
past and future hover
in a present that comforts
by its fragile transitoryness.

© 1999 John P. Nordin. Do not copy without permission except to quote a portion in a review.