LESSONS LEARNED

She had the word "Vacancy"
tattooed above her mons Venus
in a motel yellow,
the letters
strangely glowing.
A few of them were dimmed
by the passage of time
while others
were nearly invisible.
How many travelers
have stopped there?
I wondered.
And how many
were still missing?
But I was O so tired,
and needed a bed
for the evening,
maybe longer.
But this time
I'd packed light
and didn't have much
to carry
or unpack.
I gave her
my driver's license
and a credit card...
and waited.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2017