FROM THE COVE HOTEL

If you value justice, you’ll want to choose our hotel,

Though it’s ranked only fourth best

Among the dozen hotels on the bay

And its rates are those of the one ranked first.

Justice because we pay our workers

More nearly what they deserve, which is almost twice

The salaries others offer. That’s the reason

We can’t afford the extra help required

To keep the kitchen open for late-night orders.

That’s why if you need extra towels after five p.m.,

When the housekeeping staff goes home,

You’re invited to help yourself from the linen closet

By the vending machines on the second floor.

That’s why there isn’t a gym or a steam room.

And all the money we save by our location

(Half a mile from the beach) in beachfront taxes

Is passed on to the people who serve you

With care, with courtesy. Are you ready to help them

By taking in stride an easy, ten-minute walk

Past the modest storefronts where they tend to shop

To a beach as clean as the beaches of hotels

Where a walk from room to ocean takes ten seconds?

Wouldn’t you say there’s something a little desperate

About people whose craving for pleasure is so intense

They haven’t a moment to observe the world

Our workers dwell in as they earn a living

Ample enough for them to afford a few expenses

Beyond necessities? We’re proud that our cook

Manages to support his daughter in law school.

The young woman’s so grateful we pay her father

More than the market calls for that she intends

To advise her clients to focus first

On the option of settling out of court

By appealing to a natural sense of fairness.

It’s in that spirit we appeal to yours.