Fancy Hotel

 

You walk into the nursing home

And it’s just like a fancy hotel

Electric chandelier

Gas fireplace

Tall vases of fake flowers

They fill the air

With the thick aromas of Lysol and hospital

The florescent lights buzz in the hallways

A girl stands in a stiff uniform

A sunny smile frozen to her face

Two women sing

Gospel songs

In the fragile whispers

Of aged sopranos

Until a harrowed husk of a nurse

Comes to hush them 

She clutches her clipboard

A rigid symbol of dominion

In her impersonal universe

There can be no mention of Him here

Yet, in a corner almost out of sight

An old man has fallen asleep

Nearly falling out of his wheelchair

A tattered bible perched on his knee

The young girl sees

And goes to wheel him back to his prison

Leaving his bible on the floor

Reviews

[James K. Blaylock]

Wow, this poem seems so sad. My wife and I took care of a 92 year old woman last year. We went to her house everyday, she on the other hand didn't want to know much about the Bible. Her life it seemed was a bither one, and she blamed His I guess. Another great write.

[PianoandPage]

ok this poem floored me. i have been to nursing homes many times and although not always horrible so much of what you say here just hit hard.

favorite lines- "With the thick aromas of Lysol and hospital
The florescent lights buzz in the hallways
A girl stands in a stiff uniform
A sunny smile frozen to her face " - sunny and frozen. absolutely perfect.

i also really like the clipboard as dominion cause that truly is what it is. damn clipboards!

this is a great piece and should be published.

[Richard McLin]

I worked in a nursing home before, and this poem is just to true. You take something people don't know they realize and you show it to them, you tell them to their face what it is like, and I admire that. People think all nursing homes are pleasant, but you tell them how the are "really" like.

Richard

[B. Lapinski]

veru nice..fluid

[Rich Lampani]

This makes me really sad. My grandfather died of cancer last year and he had bad nurses. So this touched me on a personal level. I like how you wrote this in one flowing piece. I've been criticized for not breaking my writing down to stanzas but this works.

[Nicholas Raspanti]

wow. this is really truthful, with the fake stuff and the mean nurse. I like the compare and coontrast with the hotel. my mom worked at a nursing home once and always complained about how mean her boss was. And the surprise ending thrilled me. Superb.

[Brian K. Walters]

This poem is very honest and puts the reader right there in the lobby of the nursing home. For this reason I am glad my family members who have passed did not have to suffer there.

[Rc R. Vagilidad]

i see! i don't figure the nurse being cruel in dominion with what she opt to do with her thinkings. i think a hospice nurse understands the reality of aged sopranos, and this should not be regarded and but be inspired with... i think the nurse did is therapeutically depressed.

i like the pictures, the sad scenes depicted in this.. the senses really worked in this writing.. i like the way you played with my nose, to smell the usual smell of the environment... the souls i can feel within my goosebumps filling my mind and my skin... and the while the screams of agony, i can imagine... yell of death, and everything about whats next....

i'll be hoping for the win of this! i love this.. and thanks for dropping by my contest and for submitting!