Craig Rozniecki's "In The Middle" puts us inside a moment of pure panic. The speaker stands in the center of a space where the walls are closing in from both sides at the same speed. Moving left or right won't help, and the speaker knows it. The poem never says what the walls stand for, so they could be pressure, expectations, or a choice with no good outcome. That openness lets readers fill in their own version of being trapped.
The feelings are mostly physical. The speaker describes a racing heart, quickening pulse, sweat on the face, and a knotted stomach. Even the wish to scream is taken away: "Unable to wail or scream." The mood is tense and claustrophobic. Short lines and repeated phrases like "nowhere to turn" and "the walls close in" make the poem feel like it is circling the same fear, with no way out. It ends exactly where it started, stuck.