Sex in Motel Rooms

1.

Because I need music
I press my ear to the wall

and listen to the lovers
in the next room

as they undress each other
as they undress each other.

The glorious
tintinnabulation

of one shirt, two shirts
clanging to the floor.

2.

After she came
she rolled away

and fell off the edge
of the twin bed.

3.

As I drive home
to the reservation

I pass my the motel
where a white girl I loved

during high school
lost her virginity
to a white boy
after the goddamn prom.

4.

One the first night of our honeymoon
we lie in bed, too exhausted for sex

or conversation. Instead, we listen
to the surf, wave after wave after wave.

5.

On the couch, X wants Y
to take off her pants

but she refuses
because her friend, Z

is naked in bed
on the other side

of the room
with X’s best friend, A

who is desperately
in love with Y.

6.

O, the lonely country!
O, the lonely city!
O, the lonely motel!
O, the lonely bed!
O, the lonely man!

7.

There are two beds in the room. Of course
we make love in one, fall asleep in the other.

8.

Listen, she says, I always wanted
to watch a pornographic movie

in a hotel room, so my boyfriend
and I ordered one, pay-per-view

but it wasn’t real porn. I mean
they didn’t show any penetration.

It was just a bunch of shots
of sweaty bellies and profiles,

really tame, generic stuff,
and it barely aroused us

so we just sort of kissed
and fondled each other

then fell asleep, still
wearing most of our clothes.

9.

In the darkness, her dark body grows darker
until I am making love to her and her shadow.

10.

In Santa Monica, over
the course of three nights

the woman in the next room
sleeps with three different men.

I watch them all arrive
through the security peephole

in my door. One of the men
is beautiful, one is ugly

and the third is a waiter
from the restaurant downstairs.

11.

Scientists recently examined a hotel room comforter
and discovered 412 different samples of sperm.

12.

Okay, he says, I’m not one of those guys
who sleeps with anything that moves

but the threat of AIDS prevented me
from even thinking

about becoming one of those guys.
AIDS is a shitty deal for everybody

but it’s a really shitty deal for sex in general.
After all, our parents got to fuck

and fuck and fuck and fuck
without the fear of death.

I mean, I think all the liberalism
and progressive social change

during the sixties happened
because everybody was fucking

like crazy. And I think we elected
and re-elected that right-wing Reagan asshole

because nobody was fucking.
That’s right, sex and politics

are linked. Tight as tight.
If it was up to me, I’d set up this motel

where sex was happening
in every room. Sex and food.

I mean, the mini-bars would be filled
with cheese and crackers and fruit.

Room service would be complimentary.
Good coffee machines.

Sex and jobs, too.
I mean, in order to participate

you’d have to work at the motel,
janitor, maid, waiter, something.

Sex and love, of course
I mean, if you wanted to, you could

just have sex with one person.
That would be permitted

maybe even encouraged.
Everybody would have enough sex

everybody would have enough food
and everybody would have a job.

13.

Home with her
we get ready for bed

brush our teeth, wash our faces
all of those small ceremonies

and then we’re beneath
the down comforter

on a cold Seattle night
and I’m almost asleep

when she moves close
kisses my ear and asks me

to pretend we’re in the last
vacant motel room in the world.

Sherman Alexie