investigations

a bit of fresh air

investigations

have shown that hotel rooms

are filthier than a sewer

the sanitized glass with the rim

cleaned by a rag used to take

dark stains from the toilet bowl

linen changed three weeks ago

the bedbugs you take home

with you in your pajamas

and pillows picked up off

the bathroom floor and placed

neatly back on your bed 

 

but the brainstem is rotting

and you can’t do a thing

about soft bone and tooth disease

those tissues so malleable

and full of grace

and so your mind wanders to places

where it always knew

you’d end up

Reviews

[Eilis]

Sometimes I think survival requires some kind of willful ignorance or maybe just forgetfulness. To be able to keep going we have to deceive ourselves in some way. Whether it’s with that feeling of invincibility or that sense that what we see is all there is to see.

But we know neither of these things are true. We know that everywhere we look there are worlds we can’t see—from the seedy hidden things to the things that make life itself possible. Sometimes I try to imagine solid things as individual cells or atoms to try to understand how things can be one thing but look like another. When I learned about dark matter I found the idea both terrifying and fascinating—like life itself. So much to know but so many obstacles to knowing it. I think poetry is like the spiritual microscope in the way it helps us get closer to the things that mystify us and also the ones that seem hidden but merely require a bit of examination to reveal a secret or two. I like how you do this play between the concrete and the elusive to reach toward your ideas.

[.]

Most of the time we are content with the glossy side of the life especially when it is presented that way... But if we look deeper and think rationally then we could stumble with the raw reality. But basic human nature is to sweep the dust under the carpet as it is convenient thinking. ... Very original way of writing... I like it

[Great Aunt Astri]

ooooooeeerrrrr. That has completely put me off hotel rooms. I had a friend who worked in a restaurant, and she told me what they did to the food, if they did not like someone. So I shall not be eating or sleeping out for a while. But, in our polluted world there are probably 'nasties' everywhere. And your second verse got me thinking. Why is it that our bodies seem to be 'rotting'? And you write with 'full of grace'. I like that. It is a sort of quiet acceptance......we, like your clever poem, will end up with a abrupt three syllable line. Well done for writing this .

[Mya Q]

This is why I carry my own sheets and pillow and blanket wherever I'm going to sleep. Lovely poem and now the idea of getting older has darkened even more. Really good.

[Ed Hart]

oh, we are creatures made for the dancing moment, and as we trounce the world, we are trounced, devoured even as we devour, disassembled as we disassemble...we see the surface of things because we live on the surface of things...you, with your microscopic pen are spokesman for the true and tiny realm, more enduring and more fundamental than anything our mirror can tell us...it is a heroic jest and gesture...

[SkinlessFrank]

thanks ed...your current always electrifies me

[. serah .]

-- ohhhhhh... -- sometimes reading a poem is an experience which changes one forever... -- i don't think i could forget this poem... or not remember it if i ever find myself in a hotel room again... -- we have auto-rickshaws here in india... and some of them have seats which have cloth-covers... and when one has to board one of them, the first thought is about how 'filthy' they might be... and yet... once the decision to board is taken... one's mind wanders to things connected with the task at hand... something that i can get a sense of from the second stanza... with many insights into our physiology and psyche...

-- and the words that come to mind are 'fickle' and 'superficial'... -- maybe us human beings are so fickle and superficial that we are naturally incapable of thinking deeply... there's hardly any depth that goes into our day-to-day decisions... and the 'mind' which is 'the captain of the ship' is always looking to take off for a wander... to probably ponder about philosophical/existential things... just to avoid thinking about reality and that 'filth'...

-- brilliant stuff, Maestro D. ... your poetry is a river of mirrors in which i can see the reflection of humankind... through a journey into my own mind... -- it's infinitely rewarding to read your work...

[SkinlessFrank]

sereh....you are a mind-reader

[. serah .]

-- thanks a million for this precious compliment, Maestro D. ... :)