Friday, May 13, 2022

14,305. FOUR O'CLOCK ROCK

FOUR O'CLOCK ROCK
Harmless attitudes remain harmless
until something vital breaks, and
then they become monstrous
attributes of mayhem and dismay.
I'm not the kind of guy who sets
a clock by what is proper, but, in
the same way that a valet may 
brush a suit, I stand sentinel 
and ready to help.
-
The St. Regis Hotel kept rooms
for people like me : way before
fancy hotels degenerated into
welfare-shambles hosted by the
city. But we mostly had to pay by
the day. At least not by the hour.
-
Girls turning tricks at all moments
of the day, then lingering outside
or stalking the hallways for someone
to pay  -  some jaybird Negroid in
a 30-foot car, and with a top-hat
and feathers to boot. Pimps on the
appointed rounds; collectors plying
their doleful notions.
-
It seemed there was always something
going on, or breaking down : the dead
guy, found in Room 121E. The girl in
the stairwell, comatose from her OD.
It always seemed like four o'clock rock,
to me.

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