This Wall

This wall by the stairway
has been waiting in a rhomboid crouch
for something to happen
for a good many years
it’s been blank and waiting
bare and unoccupied
not even by one picture
or print in a frame
or just a mirror perhaps
on the blank beige surface
painted a good many years ago
and then scuffed
and smeared and scraped
by the busy traffic passing by
people running up and down the stairs
leaving their mark
busy little brats
with crayons in their hands
while the wall just waited
and waited for It to happen
even now it’s still rhomboid
and beige and waiting patiently
like a face
of uncertain age and sex
staring into unframed
unfilled space.