The Opening of the Citadel Hotel
When the Citadel doorway opened its jaws in October 1898
And its grand three stories loomed above the urban prairie landscape
Eighty men shoulder to shoulder at the longest bar in town
Guzzled beer and spirits, while the gas lamps shone around
Pissing in the porcelain trough installed beneath their feet
Which glowed ethereal as yellow rivers ran into the street
And a piano played the first bars of Beautiful Dreamer.
Men Only, yet the ladies leaned lascivious past the parlour mark
And boys with crates of whisky bottles winced at the barman’s bark
While drunks toppled backwards, saturated, crack’d on heartless tiles
Dragged away like sides of beef by hotel staff with sated smiles
Who mopped patrons’ blood into a pail of pink soup that darkened to red
Drinkers filled the gaps at the bar like teeth flying into a toothless head
And the whores’ heels tapped up the stairs with their Gentlemen.
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