This is where a hotel used to be.
Neon made the gin a sea-breeze blue,
Just as if Korea never happened.
High priestess of the scene in Jantzen
Slipped into the swimming pool,
And sent the light to slither on cement.
At the bar you could buy cocktails
Named for science-fiction movies.
You could start a conversation
Around the pink and curving walls.
It was air-conditioned, waiting for you.
It was what you always thought you were.
FL 50’s
Rick McKenzie
Rick McKenzie lives in Florida. His work has appeared in The Minnetonka Review, Pearl, Wisconsin Review, and more.
Featured
10 Ways Ms., Sassy, and Jezebel Changed Your Life!
How contradiction drove fifty years of feminist media
Maggie Doherty
How Emily Wilson Reimagined Homer
Her boldly innovative translation of the Iliad is an epic for our time
Emily Greenwood