Effort

ticking through the black boxes
that shade this path,
darker fields that shimmer
and ripple across the surface,
flat and lifeless,
sucking the life out of
the tips of fingers
in a frantic race towards
the joy and escape that awaits,
a cats eye, a piercing stare,
impartial judge, judging
black hasty smudge
and the letters run,
one by one: A B C D E