8/21/22
Right through this entrance,
the lobby will welcome you
to tour this hotel.
Black chandeliers hang from the ceiling,
their columns and scrolls twisting and curling.
Their candles rest with insomnia
atop moldy cups,
engulfed by the white of their dimming flares.
Above that reception desk
lays a brownish tan wall,
polka-dotted with small red stains
and a small brown clock, counting away
endlessly.
Far down this hallway,
your room, pedestaled above,
is waiting for you.
These walls, canvasses of blank white,
are painted by black vines of great might -
the only signs of maintenance in sight
when the lights go off at midnight.
Televisions displaced and remotes misplaced,
the knowledge they broadcast left untraced.
Guests of these rooms have never embraced
hearts left sleepy, never to be raced.
Do not peer into
that too pedestaled room there.
Do not peer inside.
When your cozy room
leaves your heart so arrested,
the pool awaits you.
The pool is where curiosity can bloom
and where hearts are never left rotten,
those black vines a facade of gloom.
The pool is where curiosity can bloom,
those black vines a facade of gloom
overlooking those moments forgotten.
The pool is where curiosity can bloom
and where hearts are never left rotten.
During the summer,
the pool stays open for all.
Swim about, freely!
For when your stomach is left growling,
Right here, the dining hall awaits you.
Under that bland, flavorless aroma,
Imaginary obligations compel you to dine.
The manchineel, once closing this hall,
Leaves its toxic trace along the floor.
Empty will the chairs be,
So please be patient.
Soon, your fruits shall arrive.
The black chandeliers of the lobby
hang over us after concluding the tour.
I can see the exhaustion in their eyes,
dimly lit by the excitement of the exit
stealing the flares from my own candles.
They get up and leave in an instant,
off to find a more luxurious hotel.
Likelier, they are, to find just a motel,
one less maintained, one more distant.
To keep them here, I must remain insistent.
To repair this place, I can cast no spell.
In calling them back, I can't scream nor yell.
In fulfilling my wishes, I remain resistant.
Bland room, fruitless halls,
and my failures in getting hearts to race
leave my establishment underbooked.
Gloomy vines, ignored calls,
all have finally settled the case
as to why this hotel remains overlooked.
