Los Angeles, Griffith Park

August 4, 1984

The airtight vision of poets and lovers
covers the world:
three die of love in Los Angeles

and the merry-go-round swirls in air
and arias of machines swirl in ears
claps of hooves and muscle
bubble-gum blooms from a nostril
steeds and mares painted once a year
with the same colors
the same lipstick and marker—
and the same mother
slaps another quarter in the slot

motion without children
and laughter

and the mother wrinkles in the background
dreaming of pigeons and laundry

heat saturates parked cars
Pico of white t-shirts and knives
the stabbing of a summer afternoon
and blood dried to a door
comes to life in flakes and flashes
a red snow of steeples
of cemeteries and families

music surrounds the women
dancing in gas stations
hothouse hairdos bristle
and matchbooks full of children
climb into the air like screams.

 

Published in Illya’s Honey, Winter 2003.

~ by danielwrasmus on August 3, 2012.