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That Time at The Grand Hotel. {poetry}

 

 

~ Photo: www.vintageseattle.org ~

~ Photo: www.vintageseattle.org ~

By Jane McCarthy.

We wake in The Grand Hotel
each morning
Belgian waffles and eggs Benedict
it’s easy to convince ourselves
the sausage will keep arriving
forever and on
at The Grand Hotel

But there are no permanent residents
at The Grand Hotel
though a picture bridge stands
in memory of some of our
favorite guests

If I could swim in the pools
of The Grand Hotel
for an eternity
I would
I don’t give a fig
if I become a dried apricot
call me a raisin
call me a prune
I’ll take it (and more)
to swim on in The Grand Hotel

Think of all the guests
who have left
think of all the ones still
up in the sky with The Gods
waiting their turn to drive up
under the portico
hand their keys to valet

There drifts through
The Grand Hotel
the most beautiful
music imaginable
lush like dew wet grass
under bare feet
under sun

And there are some
glittering glitzy bars
at The Grand Hotel
offering fantastic fun
there is all this glamour (and more)
at The Grand Hotel

But most of the greatest times
are down a simple corridor
in an unassuming wing
of The Grand Hotel
I met you
for example
one afternoon on a cement path
winding through back buildings
of The Grand Hotel

I was not expecting to meet anyone
on my walk that day
but there you were
and now I’ll always recall
that humble slab of concrete
as if it were
The President’s Ballroom
of The Grand Hotel
pressed linen
polished silver
toile wallpaper

I’ll have you know I’m going
to claw the carpet
grab at the tapestries
they’re going to have to drag me
from The Grand Hotel
by the ankles shouting
frothing at the mouth
and red-faced
before I’ll leave
The Grand Hotel

I hope you’ll do the same (and more)
I hope you’ll run through the halls
of The Grand Hotel
evade them by way of the service elevator
hide in The Honeymoon Suite
in the closet while the honeymooners
go at it drunkenly

I hope you’ll vanish into the jungle
of gardens at the edge
of The Grand Hotel
so they’ll have to stomach
machetes in the birds of paradise
before they get to you

I hope you’ll do all this (and more)
to stick around
The Grand Hotel
I hope you’ll plant compliments
on girls’ lips
strike chords in the jacuzzi
belt songs from your lungs
for as long as there is air in the lobby

For if you check out
we’ll have lost the best we’ve got
at The Grand Hotel
and The Grand Hotel
will never be the same
The Grand Hotel
will have to change its name

 

*****

JaneMcCarthyJane McCarthy  is an advertising executive in Los Angeles. She graduated from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland with an MA in International Business. When not working on ads, Jane can likely be found writing or skinny-dipping.

 *****

{Love it.}

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