Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE COLLAPSE OF THE TWO-RIVERS HOTEL, by SAADI YOUSSEF


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE COLLAPSE OF THE TWO-RIVERS HOTEL, by                    
First Line: The desert is not far from it
Alternate Author Name(s): Youssef, Saddi; Yusuf, Sa'di
Subject(s): Hotels; Nostalgia; Ruins; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses


The desert is not far from it
and when the date palms sway into its rooms
they become dusty like the water
of the nearby river and the old pipes.
Its three floors were built of gypsum and lime.
The windows of thick English glass open
to the garden bar and boats.
Maybe the drive to here is shorter
if you take the turn to the right…
Maybe you would think: How beautiful
these gardens are here.
In the Two-Rivers Hotel
we loved and gambled
and learned how to maneuver
around the poisonous liquors served in its rooms.
One day we married
and came back after the years reeled us.
We came dragging our children to show them its gardens
and we were worn by what we carried.
We did not know about the gypsum and the lime…
We did not feel the water dripping…
and the roof…
Ah, after the years reeled us
we came back dragging our children to show them its gardens
and we were worn by what we carried.

July 25, 1974


First published in The Kenyon Review, Volume 22 #2 Spring 2000.
www.kenyonreview.org/roth






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