American Lodgings

The children stood outside the door
of the pay by the hour room
of the decrepit motel,
put out to wait in the cold
and neither of them seemed to care
what might happen to them there
alone in a dangerous place.

They were on a busy street
with lots of cars zipping by,
except for the ones that stopped
for the half-naked prostitutes,
or to purchase some drugs
at the multi-service motel.

Mama said the city sent us
for temporary housing
at a safe homeless shelter.
I wonder if the city knew
it was a learning center
with a diverse curricula,
advanced drug dealing,
preliminary pimping,
with other career choices,
beginning shoplifting,
intermediate shoplifting.

This was a terrible place
and I didn’t know what I did,
to deserve to be here,
even though Mama insisted
it was my fault we were homeless.
It wasn’t different for her
cause she still took men in the room
and she took her medication
while we waited outside.

The same man and woman
who always were outside
smiled a lot but didn’t feel friendly,
talked to us about what they did,
telling us they’d educate us
how to make lots of money.

I told Hakeem not to trust them
but he too stubborn to listen.
I tried to make him understand
even though we were abandoned here
and no one else seemed to care
there must be nice people somewhere
who would take us from here
to a clean, safe place
where we wouldn’t be afraid.

By: Gary Beck

Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director and worked as an art dealer when he couldn’t earn a living in the theater. He has also been a tennis pro, ditch digger and salvage diver. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction, essays and plays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines. His traditionally published books include 46 poetry collections, 18 novels, 4 short story collections, 2 collections of essays, 8 books of plays and 16 Poetry Chapbooks. Gary lives in New York City.