Ways of Leaving

D. Walsh Gilbert

Through double doors

called French

beveled glass

tempered against shatter

Out a half-door split

across the middle

bolt-latched and locked

for the night

Past a doorway-sleeping dog

as still as dead

a blocked and guarded

threshold

Into the doorway of a cave

no door at all

empty space without a key

exit equals entrance

Shuffling slowly through

a revolving door

with its electric eye

start - stop - open

Breathe the vacuum

in the hospital’s antechamber

between inner // outer doors

Notice that caesura