The Farmer's Hotel

The lights went out in New York
 Then they went out in Goshen
 I got stuck in Goshen and that was sad.
 The townsolf stared hard
 Like their minds had been marred
 By life in a district so downtrodden and drab.
 I flagged down a stranger
 In a worn wooden wheelchair
 And when I asked if he knew of a hotel
 He said "if I get your meaning
 Then I'm definitely leaning
 Towards recommending the Farmer's Hotel."
 As I left to find the place
 A mother loooked me in the face
 And whispered "please sir, not the Farmer's Hotel."
 Once where I was headed
 She swore I would regret it
 Though what might happen she wouldn't foretell.
 The old place it was vicious
 Wicked and pernicious
 "Please stay clean of that rank abbatoir"
 Though her words alarmed me
 I was stuck until morning
 And in the end we must be who we are.
 With no light on the door
 I wasn't quite sure
 If a night clerk was working within
 From behind a red curtain
 Limped a perilous person
 He appeared to have some egg on his chin.
 This old yankee warlock
 Brushed back a gray forelock
 And bid me to sign in the book
 With no bonhomie
 He proffered the key
 Never once did he give me a look.
 I thanked the old codger
 And in my role as the lodger
 I headed upstairs for to sleep
 There was no air of slumber
 The doors, they had no numbers
 Which room was intended for me?
 The passage kept on going
 Like the carpet was flowing
 Towards that thing at the end of the hall
 My own eyed had adjusted
 This account can be trusted
 Because I know that I saw what I saw.
 I heard animal noises
 And tangled up voices
 Chanting more and of rumors of more
 There's no natural law
 That can explain what I saw
 Spread out on that straw-covered floor.
 Now I've put an ocean
 Between myself and Goshen
 To get away from the Farmer's Hotel
 If you get a nation
 To travel to Goshen
 Please stay away from the Farmer's Hotel
 The lights went out in Goshen
 Just like poetry in motion
 And I checked into the Farmer's Hotel
 Things to unclean
 Are better left unseen
 Please keep away from the Farmer's Hotel