Flotsam Hotel

I’m living in limbo
In the Flotsam Hotel
It’s after midnight
But I can’t keep still

These patterns of shadows
That crawl on my wall
The hiss of the water
Those steps in the hall

Those awful voices
In my head start to roar
They’re getting so loud
I can’t take any more

I’ve got to get out
I’ve got to get out the door

There’s a stink in the hallway
That’s crowded with ghosts
And shuddering murmurs
Behind every door

In a booth in the lobby
The night manager waits
With a thick plastic window
In front of his face

He surveils me
As I stare at my feet
And push my way through
The heavy steel gate

And then I’m out there
I’m out on the street

A wasteland of faces
In the desolate glare
A desperate current
Runs through the air

In all of those faces
The same hollow stare
A hunger for something
That just isn’t there

I duck in a corner store
To buy a cheap beer
From a youngster much
Too tough for his years

God! I’m thinking
I’ve got to get out of here!

Our business is finished
And I’m back on the street
I get trapped in the sites of
A drug-ravaged queen

Not a man or a woman
But a being in between
She croaks a proposal
That I can’t repeat

It’s hell to think how
Someone ends up like that
It’s as if she’s captured
In a permanent trap

And her soul escaped her
And she can’t get it back

The bosses of business
With cynical grins
Know somebody loses
When somebody wins

When you start losing
It feels like you fell
Straight through the floor of
The Flotsam Hotel

.