Why do so many elevator manufacturers
line elevator walls
with mirrors?

It could be
to give potentially claustrophobic closets
an anxiety-reducing sense of spaciousness.

It could be to feed our vanity.

It could be that elevator designers
are generally a good-looking lot
who figure that viewing themselves
is a good way to pass a spare minute or two.

Or maybe,
since opposing mirrors
reflect on into infinity,
it's a way to remind us
that we all eventually recede
into nothingness;
that mundane ride up to your office
is in actuality a daily trip
into existential nonexistence.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.