Skip to main content

Los Angeles

Los Angeles
a mystical land
I'd heard of
mostly in song
film
poetry
then that one day
we were there
gazing through the rain
at the vast expanse
of city far below
stretching away for miles
what is LA but
a surreal place
fashioned of dreams?
As the streetwalker
in Pretty Woman proclaims
"Everyone who comes
to Hollywood
has a dream
What's your dream?"
Indeed
Dream to walk the red carpet
or the red light district
So much about LA
I could not see
as I looked down
from atop the hill
surrounded by
a theater of mountains
yet as I took in the sand,
desert, neighborhoods
and mountains
so unfamiliar to me
stories of LA floated through my head
similar to the Florida I know
yet beyond comparison
in so many ways
Laurel Canyon
a community of
1960s hippie love
the juxtaposition between
crudity, violence and death
the drive-by shootings of
Compton and South Central
to the renaissances of art
blooming in Venice Beach
and the bastions of style
throughout the city
the opulence of Rodeo Drive
Beverly Hills
And I left it all behind
as I continued east
across the nation on I-80
back to Florida
the place where
I am always wont to return
leaving dreams of LA behind

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day 22 - Beck Diet Solution, Say “Oh Well” To Disappointment

Inigo Montoya: Who are you? Man in Black: No one of consequence. Inigo Montoya: I must know... Man in Black: Get used  to disappointment. Inigo Montoya: 'kay. The Princess Bride (20th Century Fox 1987) Just as Inigo shrugs off the disappointment of the Man in Black’s declining to reveal his identity and gets right back into the duel, so too must we shrug off those discouragements that go hand-in-hand with losing weight and keep truckin’ down the weight loss trail.   It’ll go easier for us if we do.  What if we just lay around bellyaching about how horrible it is that we can’t have that donut, can’t eat/drink exactly what everybody else does at parties, can’t just open the fridge and eat whenever we felt like it?  How much would we really accomplish that way?  Even if we do stick to our plans for a little while under that mindset, we’d be fighting an exhausting battle with ourselves every day and eventually give in.  Even the patience an...

Jimmy - 2/1/20

I dreamed of my Jimmy last night.  It was one of those dreams where it was all a mistake.  He hadn't really died.  He was at some nursing home and they were trying to find him for me.  Then in another part of the dream he was running around randomly spraying a hose.  Being that goofy Jimmy that he was.  I was hiding from him, terrified.  Then he popped up in front of me and sprayed some in my face, and I just laughed.  I hugged him hard.  Then in another part of the dream I was lying with him on the floor of the den in my grandparents' house, where sometimes I would just fall asleep in contentment.  I was leaning against my Jimmy.  I could feel myself leaning against him.  Then I woke up and saw I was leaning against the big pillow instead. Wow I love you Jimmy.  Always will.  Never was anyone like you before, nor will there ever be again.  This was not my first "it was all a mistake" dream.  I gu...

Pariah

so burnt out looking to socialize i take a few sips of the libation my senses heighten i just listen to the sounds of the room frenetic chatter all around me right next to me within inches of me the drink feels like my only friend that's how i know i'm going into a dark tunnel triggering all the worst in me people jabbering on like robots not talking to let people in but to keep people out like me how different this is from the days i wandered through Demarest Hall at Rutgers vibrations all around were pulling me in urging me to make merry with them with no alcohol in sight just love proliferating.... everyone was welcome everyone was celebrated and then there was tonight the chattering all around me me just sitting there invisible i tried to reach out tried to connect tried to feel like it felt when there was no barrier just acceptance no judgment but they turned away back to the safety of their own whatever that means so i put a stop to it i put my drink on the bar i walked...