‘Blue Peninsula’

For Joseph Cornell

Personally I like the hotel’s Spartan décor, the parakeet
in the lobby, the way ships salvage has been reused
to give the place a nautical air; the fishing net
over the windows, for example, which prevents guests
from falling out. Every room has a view of the Blue Peninsula.

It’s the parrot hunting season which always attracts
an extraordinary crowd, like those teenage girls in the bar
borrowing phrases from Schubert lieder
to trade hidden meanings. We should visit during
the ballet festival. The concierge gives lectures
on the night sky, and guests invent their own constellations.

 

COMMENT

Simon Collings lives in Oxford. He writes an occassional blog – http://simoncollings.wordpress.com/ – which contains links to some of his stories and poems. Blue Peninsula was written during Helen Ivory’s Wunderkammer! course. The poem was inspired by the work of the American artist Joseph Cornell.