A Day At The Artisan Hotel
Jan Steckel
Wind huffed so hard the swimming pool
busted out in whitecaps like the fish-filled sea.
Cabanas turned inside out, flew like galleon sails.
The pool boy strapped himself to the diving board.
Chlorine surged across the hotel lobby.
Out of the jacuzzi heaved a kraken.
Tentacles seized lounge chairs,
twisted them like paper clips.
Still the naked sunbathers turned on spits,
ripening like apricots in the sun.
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Jan Steckel is a former pediatrician who stopped practicing medicine because of chronic pain. Her latest book Like Flesh Covers Bone (Zeitgeist Press, December 2018) won two Rainbow Awards (for LGBT Poetry and Best Bisexual Book) and was a finalist for the poetry category of the Bi Book Awards. Her poetry book The Horizontal Poet (Zeitgeist Press, 2011) won a 2012 Lambda Literary Award. Her fiction chapbook Mixing Tracks (Gertrude Press, 2009) and poetry chapbook The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist Press, 2006) also won awards. Her writing has appeared in Scholastic Magazine, Bellevue Literary Review, Yale Medicine, and elsewhere.
Wind huffed so hard the swimming pool
busted out in whitecaps like the fish-filled sea.
Cabanas turned inside out, flew like galleon sails.
The pool boy strapped himself to the diving board.
Chlorine surged across the hotel lobby.
Out of the jacuzzi heaved a kraken.
Tentacles seized lounge chairs,
twisted them like paper clips.
Still the naked sunbathers turned on spits,
ripening like apricots in the sun.
###
Jan Steckel is a former pediatrician who stopped practicing medicine because of chronic pain. Her latest book Like Flesh Covers Bone (Zeitgeist Press, December 2018) won two Rainbow Awards (for LGBT Poetry and Best Bisexual Book) and was a finalist for the poetry category of the Bi Book Awards. Her poetry book The Horizontal Poet (Zeitgeist Press, 2011) won a 2012 Lambda Literary Award. Her fiction chapbook Mixing Tracks (Gertrude Press, 2009) and poetry chapbook The Underwater Hospital (Zeitgeist Press, 2006) also won awards. Her writing has appeared in Scholastic Magazine, Bellevue Literary Review, Yale Medicine, and elsewhere.