Keep the Inn Open

Prompts #28 for National Poetry Month 2021 with Shabd Aaweg Review

our souls take reservations, too

Even for guests who arrive in the wee hours,
awakening you
although, oh, it’d be so much more comfortable
to continue inhabiting a dream,
keep the inn open
within you.

Consider entertaining foolishness, too.

Yes, this last spate of guests abused your hospitality –
shattering glasses cherished for toasts,
carving their names into heirloom tabletops,
graffitiing architecturally significant walls
with permanent markers,
pissing everywhere but in the toilet,

and absconding with no notice
because the service wasn’t up to
their standards.

Yet now is when
it is most important to welcome new guests
as well as returning wondrous ones

and the regret-filled few
pleading
for a second chance.

Pull out what’s left of your china,
hand-wash your great aunt’s tablecloth,
paper over the walls, indulge in Frette linens,
replace pissed-upon stinky rugs…

Prepare a feast.

Then, as aromas from the kitchen
settle like morning dew
over the blossoming celebration,
raise a toast to hope

in a paper cup,
just in case.

©Jenine Bsharah Baines 2021

After one too many disappointments, our souls may be so tempted to close to others. To quote a friend, “to build a wall of bricks around our hearts, bury memories in concrete, and move on.”

While I empathize, I don’t agree. There’s a smallness about such a vast lack of forgiveness. As well as missed…

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