Stuck Between Floors

the air sits heavy and warm  

five strangers in the same box  

walls close in but words don't  

silence thick enough to slice  

a man taps his foot rhythmically  

the woman beside him sways gently  

as though music plays somewhere  

but the air hums only with fear  

a child holds her mother's hand  

their palms sweating unspoken worry  

the old man breathes in measured pace  

as if he can slow the clock itself  

an hour stretches into strange shapes  

one body sighs, another starts shaking  

this space makes memory feel eternal  

yet none of them will remember the same