Halfway Hotel, by Jean L. Kreiling

Hotel Room, by Edward Hopper (USA). 1931

Halfway Hotel
​
She has to leave this town, and right away.
Half-dressed, she checks the schedule:  there’s no train
tonight, and so until the light of day,
she’s stuck here in a mess she can’t explain.
At least this hotel room is halfway neat--
the bed on which she perches is half-made,
packed suitcases stand upright and discreet
beside the single armchair where she’s laid
her dress, her shoes wait side by side, she’s placed
her hat atop the bureau—but the room
is falsely tidy.  What can’t be erased
from vacant walls and pale limbs will consume
her half-hearted resolve unless she makes
her exit soon and unpacks her mistakes.

Jean L. Kreiling

Jean L. Kreiling is the author of two poetry collections, Arts & Letters & Love  (2018) and The Truth in Dissonance (2014); her work has won the Able Muse Write Prize, the Great Lakes Commonwealth of Letters Sonnet Contest, and three New England Poetry Club prizes, among other honours.  In her day job, she teaches music history at Bridgewater State University, and contributes articles on music and poetry to academic journals.