GRIM HOTEL by Jeff Callaway

GRIM HOTEL

welcome
to
the grim hotel
a hot spot to stop
on your way to
HELL
for the path of excess is
a broken road that leads
to death
or jail
or maybe to both
for one can never tell
but as for me
i’m just another guest in this
grim
gray
hotel
i’m just another ghost
rapt in a chemical spell
and this is just my tale
i must tell about how i fell
so far and so hard
i’m just another prisoner of war
in my own country’s drug war
where The Man is The Czar
i’m just another number in A1-dorm
with OFFENDER
printed on my card
my only offense a sack ice in shards
with white rocks to seduce me
into needles that reduce me
into this too dark park
where i kick start my heart
but i don’t have to lie to kick it
or
drug to perfect my ART
for some lessons in life for some are so hard
so hard for the bard
when the man holds the cards
and so old and so cold
out there on the rec. yard
Larry McMurtry says the earth is mostly
just a bone yard
but like i told you
i’m mostly lost and lonely
all these tired dour hours dire
the poet make words a maelstrom of fire
from haunted victims in the eye
of addictions stormy desire
spring forth
POEMS IN RAZOR WIRE
with yet another lesson learned
as slowly the wheels of justice turn
and as the world turns
if you play with fire you just might get burned
but i must share all these words
and the heart in the words
these words are birds
and they fly above the razor wire
my guardian angel is a mockingbird
justice is a mockery
and this prison is
a grim hotel