Changing Room

  

I’m changing rooms/again
One: cigarette smoke and stale sweat
Of last week
And last night

Now: upright- the grand ballroom of this place
Rent due,
Stove lit,
Aired out.

I’ll change rooms three more times before it’s wrote
Ink
And pen
And wall
And steps.

Hand-scratched in short stab letters
Projected on balcony-tops,
Tree tops,
Read
Left.

I’ll  take three more sips
-Inhale again.

Tell the landlord
Tell the jury
Tell them they strike the same match with me,
Tell them I’m working it out.

I’m changing rooms
To the steps outside
-with stove
And with tree
And with pen.

The borders in here are god-awful to the spirit.

 

Photo by Sadie Myers. Words by Justin David Koontz.