The
Nostalgia Motel
With the air conditioner rolling phlegm
in its lukewarm chest, the desert edges closer
by the hour while you almost sleep
beneath a frame containing
something not quite art, which depicts
a cactus greener than nature can produce
and a sunset that burns
directly through the wall. With the remote control
for the television at your side,
the ceiling fan holding to the ceiling by a claw,
and the ice in your glass
slowly thawing,
you have nothing to do but watch
through half an eye
and remember
when life was this good.
Grand Hotel Nostalgia
While everything outside changes,
the buses begin to run on time,
colour arrives in store window displays,
and advertising replaces the portraits
of dour faced politicians,
the windows of the Grand Hotel
keep their draperies of yellowed lace.
While the old, decrepit buildings
undergo restoration, the potholes in the road are filled,
and the water pipes are repaired,
the patrons sit
over a beer that lasts
all afternoon. While sunlight breaks
through the cloud cover,
the photographs on the dining room wall
continue to fade from black and white
to a comfortable grey
that begs a contemplative eye
to discern what is depicted.
There is nothing else to do
when you no longer recognise what you see
around you but to raise the glass,
sip just enough to savour
the old taste
and make it last.
The Ultimate Nostalgia
When music sounds through the wall of a house
at the moment before it is knocked down,
and when that music is a recording
of a song so old
it first became famous
in the year the house's owners married,
there is no way to stop the notes,
even as the wrecking ball
swings. They continue to ring
through rising dust;
they never stop
all the while the next house
is being built in place of the old one.
We should not feel sorry
for the couple who move away
and take their portion of the past along.
It is the occupants
of the new house
for whom we must worry, because they
are condemned to live in the spell
of this music that is always faintly with them,
a little bit waltz, part Jewish
with some gypsy flavour,
that makes them want only
to go back to a time they never knew
and they cannot even die to get there.
Copyright
© 2004 David Chorlton