I miss:
Craggy California Mountains
looming on the horizon
visible from the beach;
Faults threatening earthquakes;
Waiting for the Big One;
Ashes from wild fires;
Mud slides when it rains;
Flash floods
racing down the arroyos to the sea
drowning little boys
who play as did I in tunnels
leading to cement-covered river beds
(normally dry as a bone
from keeping lawns green in a desert
and quenching imagined needs
of mankind in fevered dreams
clouded by the smoke of millions
of stinking machines
taking them from
home to job and back
maybe to a condo as well
if they are rich enough
to escape the hell
of the black or brown or yellow
homeboys' 'hoods
with barred windows
and drive-by shootings
which have progressed
from the zip guns of my day
to the Uzis of today).

Oh how I miss L.A.!

(Submitted to the Quoth The Raven 1999 Poetry Contest)

 Return to Writing page
 Go to Ed Calhoon's main page