A Strange Comfort

There lies a strange comfort

In the smell of hotel sheets, little bottles line the vanity

Everything you need to clean but miniature.

A fresh airplane, or perhaps a rented car,

Not yet graced with the messes that real life presents

No spilled drinks, or stray McDonald’s fries

Littering the pristine floor

Sink your feet into sand

Or snow or clear flowing stream

Feel fish pick apart the impurities

In the very humanity they detest

Drink a smoothie, inhale the smells

Of sewage and wreckage and too much

Laughing gas you took last night.

Tie up your boots, smear the SPF

Sit down for breakfast, pray the menu is in English

Regret eating the eggs after hours on the toilet

“it’s a part of the experience”

The guidebook drones on and on about where

To go, what to see, who to talk to

What’s safe for you, and where you are unwelcome

But there lies a strange comfort

In the mess of Serendipity beach in the raw mornings

Cigarette butts and straws may impregnate the turtles

But at least you had a blast dancing on tables and

Cooking away chemicals in the heat of your bodies

You mock their accents, and eat their rice

And provide their livelihood

And you’ve never felt so strangely comfortable

A home away from your home, a pleasant

Welcoming unfamiliarity

You wake in the morning, caressed by clean hotel sheets

Rise and rinse and repeat with a tiny bottle

Wipe away the mist in the mirror, gaze into your glazed eyes,

I hope you feel uncomfortable.

Written by Adri Rocks

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