Thursday, March 19, 2020

SRO - THE MISSION




SRO - THE MISSION


My room

airshaft provides perpetual twilight

coughs through the wall

bathroom down the hall.


Downstairs
common room 
TV’s blue stammer
occasional daylight
across linoleum floor
as front door

          swings

open/shut

to traffic noise.

A
soul

enters/departs

no matter

          same
          same.


Rent receipt written in palsied hand.

Another week

          same
          same.


RW
Guanajuato, Mex.
03.18.2020

(SRO = single room occupancy.  I lived in that hotel for about 3 months.  Worked two jobs trying to put a plane ticket and some spending money together, trying to get to Hawaii.  Dishes at the Good Karma CafĂ© on Dolores, and day shifts at a nursing home on Van Ness.  Hotel room figures in another poem called Independence Noir.)





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