Saturday, July 4, 2009

Cheap Motels--they're still out there


of all the cheap motels I best remember

the sign by the shower said
let it run 5 minutes for hot,
the sign by the door said
don't use our towels
to check your oil, the glasses
were dirty, the ceiling bulb
was bare, night wind came in
at the door, the bed sagged
the sheets were thin, the walls
were cold and the room smelled
slightly of mildew,
the tv was twenty years old,
but ah my friend
so were we
so were we
----
Another poem from 'All Over America: Road Poems." The photo was taken recently and is not the motel in the poem. Perhaps the most surprising thing to some people is that this Rodeway Inn just a touch east of Columbus Ohio was a fine clean place. I could have stayed there a week reading and writing poems.

At Mimi's Cottage

Just spent a long weekend at Mimi's place in Northern Wisconsin. You can see it here and the poem fills in with a little more info.

Mimi's Cottage

Imagine eight hundred square feet
on four levels. The bedroom's up,
the book nook's down.
You walk outside and around
to the guest room
with its window on the lake

No insulation.

Rustic bare wood walls and studs
with book shelves in between,
a wood burning stove
we once lit in August
on the way to Manitoba.

No microwave. No tv.

The phone's a wood-carved duck
that quacks when someone calls.
It's a place to write and play Scrabble,
beat drums and make up songs.

No pressure.

In this northwoods house of words
friends gather -- whatever happens
is just what's supposed to happen.

(Webb Lake, Wisconsin)

(The poems also in "All Over America: Road Poems," see www.foothillspublishing.com for info on the book and other sample poems)