Tuesday 30 October 2018


Wi-Fi Is Free
If You Can Afford It             

by Sarah Henry

                                                                                                                                   
Welcome
to the resting place
of suicides who
have crawled
across Route 30.
During my two-day
employment,
I’m afraid of finding
a body in a shower.

The owner is never
on the premises.
He hides away
on purpose.
His cheap portrait
hangs in the lobby.

We maids don’t
know each others’
real names.
The name stitched
in red on my black
uniform is Janet.
I plow through
the trashy rooms
with a heavy hand
on the Orrick vacuum.
Without a paper trail---
no punch, unlikely pay.
White grains stretch
along the baseboards.
So this is what
is meant by
“a seedy abode.”

At Disney World,
employees take pride
in their product.
They rush
to pick up litter
in the wholesome                                                                                  
surroundings.                                                                                                                                              
Meanwhile, I sweep
the disconsolate
parking lot of
the Welcome Rest.                                                                  
My broom pushes
the dirt around,
like a wet mop                                                       
anointing
the bathroom floors.


* * * * *

Sarah Henry poems recently appeared in Defenestration, Turtle Island Quarterly and Leaves of Ink. She lives and writes in a small Pennsylvania town with no distractions.

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