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Brian Turner Sep 2020
Manny said
by lunchtime she'd be dead

You ignored me at the simming pool when I approached
The desert sun glinted off the flat roof top
Manny was your choice not mine

The call asked for grid details and map locations
I rushed through the tumbleweed to the spot
The spot where it was to happen

A van pulled up
My heart raced
A shot rang out
You fell, I shout
First attempt at Pulp Fiction. Kaufmann house a beautiful piece of modern architecture set in the desert in Palm Springs. I set an imaginery scene there with this poem. I have visited Palm Springs. You can find snow at the top of teh cable car in May and intense sun at ground level.
Xan Abyss Apr 2015
Out here in the wasteland
Our hidden world is small
Everybody knows disaster
But nobody cares at all
It's too much like paradise here
Or maybe we're just too high
But if you live where the burning sun
Kills the clouds in the sky

You know what they call us
You know what we are

Desert Rats,
we mingle with the homeless
Desert Rats
and party with the rich.
Desert Rats
We live for the moment,
Desert Rats
And we don't give a ****

We're a young town, rich with history
From PS to Coachella, and all stops in between
Like an acid trip in a fever dream
It's like nowhere else in the CV scene
It's too much like hell sometimes here
Or maybe we're just crashing
But if summer feels everlasting
And winter brings a wealth of disaster

You know about the Desert Rat life
You know what we are

Desert Rats,
we mingle with the homeless
Desert Rats
and party with the rich.
Desert Rats
We live for the moment,
Desert Rats
and we don't give a -- ****

Palm Springs
Rancho
Cat City
Indio
Sky Valley
LQ
Thousand Palms
Bermuda Dunes
Coachella
DHS
Palm Desert
...everywhere else
In the CV where the d-rats dwell,
It looks like heaven but it's hot as hell!

This is where we come from
This is where we belong
A song about home.
Xan Abyss Feb 2015
Walking to work, I saw Joan Rivers
Blowing me a kiss today
Through a store window on Indian
With that smirk you can't mistake
I crossed on Tahquitz Canyon drive,
Said "hi" to Lucille Ball,
and passed a smiling Elvis Presley,
rested against the Welwood wall.

This is where the ghosts of Hollywood dwell
Is this a Hollywood Heaven or a Hollywood Hell?
But this is where the ghosts of Hollywood dwell
the Shangri-La where the angels fell...

On a fountain's edge across the street,
Sits a grinning Sonny Bono,
and just north of there you'll find 26 feet
of Marilyn Monroe shadow.
and Frank Sinatra's voice is still heard
Crooning through the air at night,
while here forevermore at the El Mirador,
you'll find the pensive eyes of Albert Einstein.

This is where the ghosts of Hollywood dwell
Is this a Hollywood Heaven or a Hollywood Hell?
But this is where the ghosts of Hollywood dwell
the Shangri-La where the angels fell...

When the stars die,
they might fall from the sky,
but they never truly disappear
cuz you'll always find them here.

This is where the ghosts of Hollywood dwell
Is this a Hollywood Heaven or a Hollywood Hell?
But this is where the ghosts of Hollywood dwell
the Shangri-La where the angels fell...
An ode to Palm Springs.

— The End —