The Queue

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A modern fable in verse. Wise Monkey Wrought scroll N.019, "The Queue." Two queues stood at the supermarket. One was moving. It knew it was being watched. Two queues ran, parallel and slow, beneath the supermarket light. The left one had begun to flow. The right one held its members tight. A shopper weighed the flowing left. He weighed the stillness on the right. He crossed the floor, decisive, deft. The left queue halted at the sight. The right queue, lightened of his doubt, began to glide towards the till. The laws of queueing held throughout: abandoned lanes develop will. Science has looked into the case. It found no force, no field, no thread. It found a man changing his place, and two queues taking turns ahead. The fast queue exists. It can sense approach.