HOTEL 2

for GJ

Night is a tumbler of whiskey.

This is a sequel. The actors

are acting the lines read before.

Somewhere a man laughs a laugh

laughed before. The audience remember

his laugh. They laugh. Nobody worries

if the plot is rehashed, if the same

sets are used. This is a sequel.

Exactly the same, but the gore

is exploded. Whispers down tree-lined

lanes of the murders. Everything

suspected of truth becomes true.

In The Church of St. Bernadette

of The Cross a woman trims candles.

The altar cloth shows Joan of Arc.

Evensong starts. The choir sings incense,

footsteps echoing in the aisle and apse.

A laugh. The stained glass explodes. Static.