the hotel room
seems haunted
by more than
just a manic fool

there is a
ticktickticking
like a ghostly
geiger counter
as i lay alone
on a too big bed
wondering if
there is a reactor
leak at the dairy queen

while the air conditioner
gurgles phlegmily
like a deep one rising
at dunwich harbor

the conflagration of
too loud televisions
a droning chant beneath
the last blood moon
and i cannot tell
if it is engines revving
or a chainsaw wielding
housekeeper here to
deliver fresh towels
for arterial showers

i feel myself
slipping
and the last thing
i need is to have
a manic episode
in a lonely hotel room
too far from home

if the radiation
doesn’t reduce me to
a quivering lump
of cancerous cells
to feed the gurgling
gods of condensation
i hope they have
muffins for breakfast
nothing better than
empty calories
while waiting for
the next inevitable
impending doom to fall