elotes jingling ringing by
ponies munching grass
inevitable sticky arm
pointing to the sky
watching Cooper's pass

buses exhale noxious fumes
singing greasy axle tunes
grainy walk beneath our feet
offers something more than supple street

something more than supple street
something more we can't defeat
a burning penny in blue-tile sky
a charred lily in our green water supply
a pyroclastic flow of people
i'd love to meet
i'd love to meet
i'd love to meet

Have you ever kissed a greyhound's knee?

It's amazing how you can talk nonstop
Take a ******* breath already

if you're ever in Little Tokyo
and a man with a ponytail
asks you where he can wash his hands
do not answer

learn
Spanish.

this isn't a poem
unless you read it

this isn't art
until you see it

this isn't life
until you breathe it

so don't go to a coffee shop expecting to work;
because the hand that feeds will SEIZE a dose of life NEEDED.

when you find yourself stopped at a green light
once
twice
maybe three light cycles

abandon all fear that you won't reach your goal
just say these words two times each, eight seconds apart:

love
unity
abundance

now, drop anything that feels heavy

you will reach your destination

beware of our luscious palm trees
they will catapult themselves into your
kaleidoscope windshield

or at least it is now

so you have an affinity for ghosts?
explore our urban ruins, at most, forget the Queen Mary
ain't nothing as scary
as a spectral Vincent Price and Frank Lloyd Wright
lurking amongst the needles and graffiti in Barnsdall Park

you say you want uniquely terrifying and seedy?
try this rotten picnic table nestled deeply in Griffith Park
atop which two young Angelenos

made love
then died

under the crushing weight of a healthy oak tree
felled by some fell spirit
coordinates thirty four eight thirteen one eighteen eighteen twenty three
if you don't believe me

remember,
love vanquishes all attackers
even when the guy next to you smells
like sour milk
and rancid pinto beans from 1989

people will just love your ****** clothes
do not change

take the freeway sampler for long trips to see your horrible family

110
710
405
5
5
405
710
5
101

stop thinking and find Cliff Weber

there's something supremely wonderful
at the end of that ridiculously long line
be patient

in March the sky is cobalt blue
in August it's haze is the hue of slightly ***** water
a non-color, really
learn to appreciate them both

put an NRA sticker on your apartment door
even if you're a pacifist
trust me

remember, chances are
you will die in an earthquake bigger than Haiti's
or sizzle in a brushfire más caliente que Hades
or perish on the smog with your stupid lungs that don't breathe
with one of our 3.858 million
love thy neighbor

if you happen upon
some people making love in the park
it's perfectly OK to stare
everyone is a performer

yesterday i saw dolphins
i swam with dolphins
their black knife jackknife dorsal-whatevers
slicing the water, scalpels into flesh,
disappearing, reappearing, disappearing,
reappearing
a herd of silent Lamborghini cracking jokes at my expense
(looks plural to me)

yesterday i saw dolphins
i chatted with an old man
who said they're laughing all the time, diving for *******
"Oh yeah, we get dolphins here,"
he might as well tell me Jesus lives there, too
or some kind of black magic came through
making these creatures appear
his nonchalance is weird

yesterday i swam with dolphins
well, saw, not swam, viewed, not caressed
but
all i want to do is see them
all i want to do is breathe with them
all i want to do is float in the same sea with them


my heart ripped to pieces in appreciation