PENSION MALDA

Peering through clouded glass

into empty space and silence.

I used to love that accumulation

of ornaments from earlier times;

Quixotic history casting shadows

on a family by their open fire.

 

There was always shelter here

no matter how late the flight arrived

and with luck you could escape

the bugs - a kind of bedroom roulette.

Creaking passages snaked everywhere,

a spiral to a broken tower.

 

Well off the online radar

but modernity still caught them up;

health laws took them down.

Most tourists like things pristine.

Predacious insect life endured

sucking blood one time too many.

 

For the atmospheric Pension Malda Barcelona R.I.P.

Orbis Journal, issue 189. Editor Carole Baldock.