To The People Not on this Earth Anymore

MID-CENTURY HOTEL ROOM, 1955

 

The mid-century hotel room

   keenly chilled by air-conditioning

       against the wavy heat right outside the orange door

Watercolors of desert scenes on the walls

   Frank S. on the airwaves

        Mid-priced champagne in an ice bucket

 

The bed sheets feel deliciously cold against their legs

       Swimming earlier has tired them out

            in an intoxicating, weak-kneed way

Steak and baked potato dinner with Caesar salad

     no stomachaches during the night

          just matrimonial euphoria

               

It is six years before my entrance -

      I’m safe because I’m still in the ether

            so no fear, or thoughts of doom

 

I can glamorize the 1950s of my parents

    but my imagination is so wrong  -

Still, I like to dream of it

    as perfect