O'Hare International Peoplewalk Tunnel by Ed Higgins
At step blinding speed we all alight somewhere in the world, more than occasionally to laugh at ourselves. As well as at our whole burlesque human racing. Hopefully with some relieving hope. Although pouring down tears too. Otherwise scorpions the size of hate or worry can plunge venom into our primitive lizard brains. Where hate and worry sputter baneful toxin stimuli. Passing into our medulla’s autonomic thoughts and impulse actions without sufficient considerations. Not unlike those distracting neon lights flashing overhead at O'Hare's B & C concourse-connecting pedestrian walkway tunnel. The pulsing neon rainbow runs the corridor’s ceiling length along with synchronized music distraction. Then a mechanical prophet-voice at the end of the peoplewalk gives laconic warning: Look down, look down, look down! Yes, everybody needs to watch their step because our burlesque neon journey is always abruptly ending.
Ed Higgins' poems and short fiction have appeared in various print and online journals including Triggerfish Critical Review, Months To Years, and Tigershark Magazine. Ed is Asst. Fiction Editor for Brilliant Flash Fiction journal and lives on a small organic farm in Yamhill, OR, USA raising a menagerie of animals—including a rooster named StarTrek.