Two Days in Luton

Our flight landed in Luton. We were to stay with friends
in London, but we were bushed. We'd had five hours sleep
in three nights (long story). We were both ill and the friends
had babies. Did we want to be responsible for Spanish
influenza in UK babies?
Luton, my god let's stay in Luton.
We check out a kiosk at the airport that nails
down last-minute hotels. Two Irish women.
Oh yes, for fifty pounds they can get us
a four star hotel. In Luton. We take it. We've begun
and ended this trip with four star hotels.
It is the best fifty pounds I have spent in my life.
I get a swimsuit and we keel out in the sauna. We eat fish and chips
and bangladeshi food on Wellington Street. A student
in a health food store tells me they study media
in Luton. The odd feeling of living near London, remembering
that man in the cream suit outside the National Gallery -- he
wore a golden mink around his neck, a stole, as he spoke
into a silver cellphone.