Robert Griffiths
Night in the Black Hotel
The night was permanent as we drove.
It had been for years. The blue days were gone.
The yellow, the white, all gone. It was black now.
Under the green lights we drive
by the dry towns, dry as a bone,
and skeletons of sheep and horse and cow.
Nothing to do but drive, arrive,
and move on, talk on the telephone
about where the deal is, what it is, how
to do the deal. Stay semi-alive,
loading the petrol, paying the loan,
watching where the night-men skulk. Stay low.
Keep in the heart a place for love?
Like the moon they talk about it’s gone,
died like a dream-thing years ago.
Into the focused dark we shove.
Knowing no other, knowing no sun.
Along with the rest of them we flow.
Night in the black hotel. Then leave.
Go to the border, holding a gun,
make the exchange in a flash then blow,
none of us cowardly, none of us brave.
The same black sky over everyone.
Had been for years. It is all we know.
Page(s) 49
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