new from above/ground press: Hotels, by George Bowering

Hotels
George Bowering
$5

                       1.


At the Swiss American Hotel
in San Francisco there weren't any
Swiss.

There wasn't any
lock on the door, either, just
a little loop that slipped over
a nail.

The smoke I smelled did not
resemble plankton, maybe the night breeze
through sagebrush outside
Oliver, B.C., coyotes drifting by.

No two girls on the hallway rugs, no
rugs in the hallway. No phone ringing,
in fact, no phone. What was outside
the window? I don't know, I didn't
look out the window.

They told me Lenny Bruce
was out there; wasn't he
supposed to be in here?

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
October 2021
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

George Bowering: I have been working all year on the unpublished book Romantic Words by the late Artie Gold. I have just finished a response book, poem by poem. My 13-section “Hotels” is in response to his “Hotel Victoria.”

Hotels is George Bowering’s fifth above/ground press chapbook, after STANZAS #12 (“BLONDES ON BIKES: 1-20,” April 1997), A, You’re Adorable (as “Ellen Field,” October, 1998; reissued October 2004), Tocking Heads (ALBERTA SERIES #2, October, 2007) and That Toddlin’ Town / Baby, don’ ya wanna go? (2016).

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com