The Hotel Durant

Sitting in the window

Of my fashionable hotel

I sip the Pinot Grigio

As the waiter walks away

Looking at the crowd

All the people passing by

Looking back at me as if

I was a monkey on display

There are giggling girls

And neck-cranked leering boys

There’s a mom with a stroller

Mesmerized by her beautiful baby as he fades away

I lift my glass, keeping constant my gaze

Through my white wine

I see an orchestral and colorful movement,

A spiraling haze

The waiter returned and placed

My lunch on the crisp white tablecloth

His finger covered in a bright blue

Rubber finger tip, part of which looked purple

Ahhhh… fish with mango tartar sauce…

Turning back with a small bite in my mouth

I see an older couple standing crowded in a doorway

Eating hot dogs in their buns… together

A dark skinned woman with shorts that are

Way too small hurries her skinny partner-lover

Along the crowded road

And he obliges

My own summer browned skin

That makes people stare

I admire for a moment against

The sparkling silver wares- no one sees it, but me

And I look up and wonder why the

Dark skinned woman who is too fat

And too harsh, is so loved

By the skinny man

Or why was the pony-tailed man

In the jeans too short

Escorted by the kindness

Of another life, of course?

The waiter asked if I wanted more wine as

A drop of blood fell from his purple rubber finger

Hitting the table with a silent thud

As I sit alone in the window, pretending not to notice

Making me wonder…

In my fashionable hotel

as I sit alone with my summer browned skin

And my beautiful clothes

Do you think

perhaps

I should be drinking

Red wine

Through which
they cannot,

My envy,

see?