ONAI Kotaro/Japan

No-tell hotel

As Sunday comes to close

I open the curtains in the south-facing room

From my chair

I can watch the no-tell hotel on the beach

Against a backdrop of darkness

Stirred by the heat

Rising from the Pacific, about the size of a nipple

Shining orange

I drink green tea

While watching the no-tell hotel

The reason I decided to move this room

Is because I can watch those lights from the veranda

Horizontal lights along the roof

And then the lights hanging down like grapes

Each of the rooms

Shines as if carving out the night sky

The windows or frames of the rooms

Shine as if floating from the earth

Once, in a corner of spring,

in the front of the no-tell hotel

I said "Shall we wash the sand off our feet there?"

And was met with the reply "Stop joking around"

I drink green tea

It's already past twenty two o'clock

My wife closes the curtains

With the face of a giraffe

I watch the lights of the no-tell hotel blend with the moon

Through the narrowing gap