Red Tape

They gathered in a room of intent,  

charting maps with sharp-cornered edges,  

the kind that fray fingertips but promise  

a smoother sky beyond.  

The plan was simple, they said.  

Like untangling necklaces knotted for years—  

except these knots were policies, rules,  

the unwelcome hush of waiting rooms,  

the stalling engines of hard-to-ask questions.  

Someone’s voice cracked like a dry leaf:  

“How do we make patience lighter?  

How do we let moments exhale again?”  

And so, they sliced open the chokehold,  

streamlined corridors wide as forgiveness.  

The dust of hesitation swept out doorway cracks,  

papers learning to dance, not collect.  

Outside, the wind heard the news first,  

whispering through phone lines, ticking clocks.  

Inside, clocks unlocked their patience too.  

Because somewhere, waiting had turned  

into forgetting. Losing. Unraveling.  

But here, here was the promise of footsteps—  

not stopped, not stuck—moving somewhere true.