Curtains by Stuart Dybek

[snowynight]

Sometimes they are the only thing beautiful
about a hotel.
Like transients,
come winter they have a way of
disappearing,
disguised as dirty light,
limp beside a puttied pane.
Then some April afternoon
a roomer jacks a window open,
a breeze intrudes,
resuscitates memory,
and suddenly they want to fly,
while men,
looking up from the street,
are deceived a moment
into thinking
a girl in an upper story
is waving.