An alley can be looked at as a kind of roofless tunnel. In “The Symbolism of Tunnels in Literature”, Linda Emma informs us that tunnels serve as “symbolic representations of journeys and passages” such as “from a place of darkness and doubt to a place of light and confidence.” She adds that “In its most primal meaning, the tunnel symbolizes the birth canal.”

The alley answered,
“I know the exit.
Focus
Right.”

For this blackout poem created from page 5 of The Matrix screenplay, I used the poetic device of personification. Obviously, alleys can’t speak but with the help of personification, this alley gives direction. I also used the literary device of ambiguity. The alley could be urging us to focus right, as in, to focus in the correct manner. In “Creating Focus: The Right and the Wrong Way” the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute cautions us about the wrong way to create focus: “in tasks that involve creativity, outside the box thinking and personal initiative, the carrot and the stick approach…creates tunnel vision…” 

The alley could also be telling us to focus on the right side; maybe that’s where the exit is located. It so happens that Roger W. Sperry, psychobiologist and Nobel Prize winner, theorized that the right brain is connected to “imagination, holistic thinking, intuition, arts, rhythm, nonverbal cues, feelings visualization, daydreaming.”