The Hotel Sublime

I am the lobby
You are the parrot in the cage

The man named Amanda
gallantly opens the door
for the boa lady. The boa
she wears today snags
the eye–red, gold, jungle
green, and turquoise.
Her father made the boa
out of fallen feathers, so
much did he love birds.

The desk clerk notices the two
of them and pretends not to.
The man named Amanda’s
rent is three months in arrears.
The Hotel Sublime pipes in sea
breeze, a kind of Zoloft (TM)
for the gloomy lobby air,
but the …