5th Avenue Motel

They closed the transient
5th Avenue Motel and now
where will they go?
The single mother with
her two daughters
eating cockroaches from
the floor, hell, where will
the rats and roaches go?
The city thinks it’s
a drug infested blight,
but Jack Neeley knows
its secret history, likely
once a grand building
near Knoxville’s 4th
and Gill district.
They came from all
over to stay for a
night or a month
or whatever they
can afford, however
they can afford it –
recycling bottles,
turning tricks,
playing at Robin Hood
for themselves, and now
it’s gone, broken windows
boarded up, chain link
fence surrounding it
like it’s a dog with scurvy.
The transient hotel
drained pale, pissing
in an empty ashtray.

originally published in Main Street Rag (2005)