You can check out any time but you can’t leave.
The song is a world outside
whose gates unlock but its air
is solitary, a staring at a wall;
fingers scratch out the passing of each day.
At random times the visitors appear.
They nod and smile but do not talk.
Sometimes he dreams that she is sitting there
across the table, almost holding hands.
He wants to touch her face, her neck, her hair.
She does not speak. The body is quite still.
As someone lays a flower by her side
he wakes. There will be no parole
and silence makes the sentence
incomplete
The past cannot be escaped, yes. But we don’t to, it’s too valuable.
Moving poem Martin. I wonder if the first verse is needed? Unless I’ve missed the point, oops! I like ‘at random times the visitors appear’ and the comparison to a life/prison sentence.
Thanks, Sarah. It’s a problem of killing darlings (as usual). I’d love to keep the first line as it’s from the Eagles’ Hotel California (as I’m sure you know). I’ll think about it!