Day 25-ish: Seeing Clearly

Poem:

Seeing Clearly

Late night in someone else’s city

I slink into the hotel bar,

a fifteen-hour work day behind me,

smiles that know me too well ahead.

Men and women sing here and I know them,

know what they will sing

and why.

I know Joe makes a great martini

and Dane is a living rainbow,

that Chrissie smiles a little less

when her boyfriend drinks here

and the woman with the senator

meets a different senator every week.

I know the room,

gritty and pristine at once,

lets the Steinway gleam classical

and still feel ragtime

through showtunes and blues.

I know to leave my glasses behind,

to let this tiny universe wash over me

in points of light that

spread out like a kaleidoscope

before Joe serves tonight’s

first drink.

Commentary:

This poem represents a scene, repeated may times while I was working out of town.  This came as part of the experience that did the most to lead me to my current career path, and in the process showed me a world very different from what I knew up to that point.

The poem is built on repetition, reinforcing a cyclical feeling within the moment, while simultaneously paced to feel like it is moving constantly forward, blending people and music and visuals as different swirling aspects of the nights there.