Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Tuesday poem #612 : Charlie Petch : The Anatomy of the Cecil Hotel

 

To be performed as the voice of the hotel. Make loop pedal builds of elevator sounds and murmuring and any other hotel sounds that seem necessary.


My guests arrive
enter through my toe
ride elevators
up my spinal column
sometimes they
make love in my ulna
fight in my fibula
become a clot of blood
in my venous cava

many have thrown open
my eyelids to leap
claw at my sides
as they realize
they want to live
on their way to death

I am a library
of human triumph and tragedy 
each furnished atrium
houses stories of resilience
and complete defeat

there’s always a vacancy
when the world shows
how ugly it can be
just ring the bell
the ghosts will help
you to your rented
womb

 

 

 

 

Charlie Petch (they/them, he/him) [photo credit: Nika Belianina] is a disabled/queer/transmasculine multidisciplinary artist who resides in Tkaronto/Toronto. A poet, playwright, librettist, musician, lighting designer, and host, Petch was the 2017 Poet of Honour for the speakNORTH national festival, winner of the Sheri-D Golden Beret Award from The League of Canadian Poets (2020), and founder of Hot Damn it's a Queer Slam. Petch is a touring performer, as well as a mentor and workshop facilitator. Their debut poetry collection, Why I Was Late (Brick Books), won the 2022 ReLit Award, and was named "Best of 2021" by The Walrus. Their film with Opera QTO, Medusa's Children, premièred 2022.  They have been featured on the CBC's Q, were the Writer In Residence for Berton House (2023), were long-listed for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2021. Their solo show "No one's special at the hot dog cart" debuted at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2024.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

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