Poem: God Watches L.A.

Originally published in Danse Macabre.

Soon I will be on a plane to L.A. My anxiety always spikes at the gate.


Owl

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God Watches L.A.

an unimaginable
blur of brains in a sluice of cars
oozes downtown,

there to split
dull as filament
into greedy fortresses:
wars of nerve-endings, hormones,
and throats.

not even
Jesus, Buddha
or whatever myth,
could cure this valleywide hive,
resolve its seethe of jealous
prayers.

so much babble. and calumny.
subroutines and masks.
psychogenic deluge
of flocked lips.

to care about it all
would be to spread out too far,
until empathy crept so thin
it had no atmosphere.

sometimes, maybe,
when unscripted awe
breaks from the grey glue,
no longer part of everything--

perhaps then--

there are eyes and a face:
a fresh expression
so very much more important
than anything else at all.



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