The Escalator Poem by Hime Hiroda

Yes, up they go again
With their stoic faces and unfazed demeanor
Young and old alike
They hold onto it as if it were their life.

Maybe it is – I think
They don’t even care if someone gets hurt
If someone needs help - they don’t
They just look up- not at the people with them.

It doesn’t matter if they skip a few steps
If they push people, step on some even
Just to get to the top – high up
To the zenith where no soothing zephyr sings.

The trip is over – truly done
Their stoic faces, now so sullen, so glum
All life, all energy drained out of them
Sucked out into the dark abyss where all joy is undone.

Their once proud bearing, now with shoulders drooping
They seemed to have gone where I’ve already been
No matter how they hold on, when they get trapped
There’s no other way to go but down.

I think they ought to have paid more attention
Not with their eyes looking yet unseeing,
But they should’ve been like me
Below them, just watching, where no man wants to be.