"Ghosts of the Roosevelt"

woke on my 67th birthday
at Hollywood Roosevelt
where the mirror Marilyn haunts
is in storage

the day I checkd in
I passd Montgomery Clift's room
but didn't hear his bugle

later I peekd into the bar
where Victor Killian had too many
the nite he was murderd

the ghosts here are many
Johnny Grant lived & died here
& Todd Moore was a guest
Elizabeth Short walkd thru the lobby
where elderly Mack Sennett
sat alone for hours
John Carlyle workd the front desk
& Eleanor Powell told tales
to a dinner of cinephiles
in the Blossom Room

I sit in the lobby
listening to water bubble up
in the fountain
wondering how soon
I too will be a ghost