NaPoWriMo 2021 – Day 4 – promises, promises

promises, promises

they never returned, even with faces 
masked, big screens, media rooms and sound 
bars had saved them from having to cram
themselves into uncomfortable seats, elbow 
to elbow with strangers, potentially
dangerous, infested with deadly viruses 
or worse, brandishing assault rifles,
the noisy demons in their heads begging 
to be slaughtered in the bloodletting
of innocents...no, they weren’t going back. 
renovations could not disinfect the crazy,
protect them from the madness, for they 
had grown comfortable in their shelters, 
unwilling to risk contact with deplorables, cult 
crazed zombies, veins boiling with infection and hate...
it’s been years now, since these doors 
were shuttered, renovations teased on
a tattered marquee, the people had long grown
weary of promises, promises impossible to keep

~kat

NaPoWriMo2021 - Day 4 Challenge: Select a photograph from the perpetually disconcerting @SpaceLiminalBot, and write a poem inspired by one of these odd, in-transition spaces.