Page 23 - Holly Carney Issue (3)

HOTEL WESTGATE

By Todd Lafferty
A visitor on a business trip to our fair city happened
upon the Westgate Hotel and was inspired to pen the
following...Thanks Todd!

Evening’s end, a hotel bar clear
Sleep awaits, but not before By the intricate double-chan-
A glass of wine, a cabernet delier
A song or two the girl will play Jewels and suits and evening
But in the room is so much gowns
more An old-world place in new
The best have gathered to downtown
perform Travelers saved from lone-
As scattered among the busi- some plights
ness crowd Hotel Westgate, ev’ry night
Are those who richly croon
aloud Third hour past and drunk am I
They shake the walls and Not from wine, but voices high
cause a sight. Conga lines approach piano
Hotel Westgate, ev’ry night. Though all await the tenor,
Daniel
Instead of heading up to bed He takes his place to loud
A concert tha’d fetch two bills applause
instead But chords of Phantom give
Believe not such a thund’rous them pause
boom The Steinway thunders, the
Be produced in such a tiny tenor bellows
room Silencing observing fellows
Voices textbook in their sound- A voice with power that stirs
ings a fright
Piano raucous in their pound- Hotel Westgate, ev’ry night
ings
A good excuse to stay awake Passion-filled, he sings with San Diego
And watch the walls and rage Woman
glasses shake More expert than ever on the
Voices leap to stunning stage
heights First-time jaws all fall agape
Hotel Westgate, ev’ry night As Webber’s song takes per- 23
fect shape
Two songs in, my ears in Lobby patrons flow inside
flames Swept up in his vocal tide
I saunter up to bar back James The Phantom cries to choral
A kindly man, a British sort brinks
Who slings the drinks while we An’ the crowd lines up to buy
cavort him drinks
Talent stuffed, they gather Performing “Music of the
here? Night”
“Ev’ry night for 30 years.” Hotel Westgate, ev’ry night
Flawless song -- passion
aplenty -- Sauced and spent, to my
In a room just more than regret
twenty. They harmonize their last duet
Voices echo in powered might And though the patrons beg
Hotel Westgate, ev’ry night. and plead
Saloons have liquor laws to
For thirty years, James says, heed
they’ve met And out we go, but not before
Standards, oldies, show tune I vow to visit them once more.
sets
Dietrich, Rat Pack, Gershwin Who’d have known that one
sung can see
Dramatic opera, foreign A secret show tune society
tongue Whose only pay is pure delight
A classy joint, that much is Hotel Westgate, ev’ry night.

July/August 2008