The Lounge at the Condado Vanderbilt
San Juan, Puerto Rico, 7:08am, 2021 AD
Leah and I flew to Puerto Rico for a short winter vacation a few years ago. We stayed at an historic 1919 hotel on the north shore called the Condado Vanderbilt. Lovely place; highly recommended if you are traveling.
I’m an early bird. Up by 5am most days, even when I’m on vacation. Our room had a Keurig, but I didn’t want to wake Leah, so I grabbed my journal and pen and set out to find a cup of coffee. Problem was, there were no coffee shops within walking distance that were open at that ungodly early hour.
However, the hotel lounge offered free coffee starting at 7am, so I sat down in that luxurious space, near floor-length windows which overlook the Atlantic Ocean. I wrote, and I waited for the coffee service. As it got closer to 7am, I noticed the lounge began to fill up with similarly eager, white, middle-aged US citizens—mostly men, eyeballs shifting, itching their forearms, repeatedly pulling out their phones to check the time, and I realized with horror, my god—I’m one of Them! 🫨
April is National Poetry Month! I aim to post a poem each weekday in celebration of the form. Some old, some new, some published, some never-before-seen.
I love the details and the form of this poem!