False Alarm

The radiator finally quit its metal cough

and I sat down with a bowl of soup

before the wall started screaming.

The strobe light hit the hallway rug,

a white flash against the grey industrial weave,

blinding us all into the street.

I stood in my socks on the damp cement

while the manager checked his watch

and sixty of us waited for the silence

to let us go back to our cold dinners.