" Hotels "

Remember staying in the 5 star hotels?
A lobby fit for a King.
Staff in starched, pressed, uniforms scurring about
taking you to your room with a view.
The bed linen white, crisp and clean.
White down covers perfectly placed on the bed.
An air conditioner purring out its cool, clean air.
Clean carpet and a clean bathroom, no smoking here.
The ever present shampoo, conditioner, soap, body lotion shower cap
kleenex, hair dryer and drinking glasses
with paper covers over the top to tell you how much they care
and that that glasses are clean.
Thick, white cotton bathrobes and towels.
Just pick up the phone and you got
a delicious breakfast in bed,
and anything else you wanted.
A little refrigerator full of your favorite drinks.
Hangers you could steal, color television,
extra pillows and blankets that looked
like no one had ever used them.
Candy on the pillow at bedtime
and a paper under the door in the morning,
and wake up calls.
All you could want and more.

Remember this hotel?
A dark, dingy, lobby
that smelled of old dirt and smoke.
Dragging your suitcase up the stairway
down a dimly lighted, smoky hallway
to a room that looked down
on the roof and the alley
above the hotel kitchen.
The carpet was dirty and when you opened
the window to get rid of the smoky smell,
you smelled the cooking grease of the kitchen.
The towels were small and gray,
making you wonder if they had ever been washed.
There was no soap, shampoo, etc..
There was a dark gray ring around
the bottom of the bathtub.
Someone elses hairs stuck to the surface of the tub.
There was something brown on the toilet seat.
You were not sure if you wanted to even
put your suitcase on the soiled bedspread.
You carefully folded it
and took it off the bed.
The pillows looked like a bag of cement
that had hardened in the bag
and lost its paper cover.
You looked down at the gray sheets
and noticed something on the fitted one
that covered the mattress.
You looked closer and saw
that it was a scab from someones scalp
with a long black hair still attached.
If you went down to the desk
and ask for clean towels and sheets
they would be the same.
How were you going to stay in a room
where you did not want to touch anything?
You did.