i love this shit
holiday inn
throwback
red wine in plastic cups
from a screw top bottle advertised as staff’s pick
the place smells 80s/90s ancient
pool
arcade
sandpaper towels
a ping pong table
old bins
carpet
we swim
pool, print
wax, wane
the ping of tokens
yawns
we’re tired from the drive
so we call it
dad is tipping over in the hall
he stumbles, finds key, fades
in the room he’s crumbling
but he hits wine
second winds himself
he showers
pulls curtain, stares
he finds a hidden camera in the bathroom
it is up in the ceiling fan
but he’s so drunk and melancholic
that he just starts dancing for it
a week later he gets into his cups
he gets cross at the memory of it all
calls the hotel, complains, fits
they check the room
the camera is gone
dad throws a tantrum on the phone
drives the three hours out,
swears oaths
wants to see the room
they oblige
he tears the room apart
he is savage
he is impaired
he chokes out a staff member
up against a mirror
the one who got sarcastic on him
now dad is in jail for the weekend +
dad swears it was all justified
he asks us to put money on his books
he's whiney on his collect calls
there's background noise
he's hurried, short
he wants money for the commissary
he wants a chocolate bar
he doesn't say i love you
john's wager
john tried to do something
or somethings to his ex-wife
without consent
he was all into his cups, bloodshot,
scavenging, pedaling
she was passed out
in a string hammock out back
the back of the house
where he used to pay a mortgage on and what
he showed up on his mountain bike
and found her back theres abouts
he wunt no dexterous cat and the like
he got all tangled up in the netting
when he jumped her
struggling, entwining and such
then the neighbors' motion
sensored lights went on and all
john was on three different ring cameras
all celebrated on screens of a fashion
his ex worked up, woke, waken
shifted, screamed, flinched
bitched a blue streak
clawed...
cops came
they got him on his mountain bike
about a half mile off
handcuffs, squad scene, lightings
of a red and blue quantity much
so anyways he went to trials all done up
and the trials went as they will
john was remanded to the
commissioner of corrections
dutifully and with no pomp
shaking his head like all half innocents
the cam girl from hell
she rolls soft damper pad bills
jenny that is, hard knuckles, the look
the gentlemen will take a chance
she don't know from nothing
no place
one of her special jon's pops in
harry
harry he pays an extra grand
every two months
special access, and some
chat sessions
rolls up his sleeves, king-snipe, all in, see
he's hooked
jenny tells him he's special
he is cause he pays
he knows it
but he's also deluded
jenny wants to make a buck
she offers harry a lock
of her pubic hair, red ribbon, the
old routine...
it's something he has been after
something he begged for
she agrees but wants two grand for it
harry agrees, it's a boodle,
but he immediately drops a paypal
three weeks hence he gets a bag in the mail
a bunch of loose clippings,
no ribbon, not even perfumed
harry goes incognito in a group forum
under the name "rug merchant"
jenny's bragging about the heist
and how stupid harry is
harry finds out that she sent him
a bag of old hair her friend
scooped up from the floor
in a great clips she works at
harry gets two grand in cash from
his little fire-proof safe
and buys a gun the next day
harry drives out to LA
to try and find jenny
he ain't ever shot a gun but
he's certain he can find her
he tries all kinds of ploys
to lure her out into society
he thinks he knows the score
he starts to think he'll see her in the streets
but he tosses in the towel after two weeks
he pawns the gun he bought
and goes back to his wife and kids
he still subscribes to jenny
he can't stop
harry is in love
he calls jenny his
cam girl from hell