Underground Parking Garage Poem by Raj Dronamraju

I could compare you to anything
Weather and leather and optical illusions of pleasure
I could compare you to being lost in an underground parking garage
Ticket with the parking space number clutched in one hand
Direction lost in man-made space, deliberate emptiness

The key refrain is passing time
Not fully recognized even though the focus is you
When I am lost in trying to know you and there is no visible way out
I have somewhere else to be and I am starting to sweat

I have lost track of which level I left myself behind on
Only that when I brought us here, I was different
The man who parked the car was unsuspecting and burdened only with errands

For the praise of an obvious pain
A hassle guaranteed just for being present
I've made sure to run the maze without any idea about how to get out
Punish me now in labyrinths of consumerist expression