Thursday, April 6, 2017

don’t talk with your mouth full


(L’enfer, c’est les autres – Jean Paul Sartre)

 

where does the westward border

of california end?

 

do we own any part of the sea?

at high tide or when it recedes

does the border change?

 

i’m not talking the two hundred miles

of international waters

but state line

north, east, south are all defined

by states

or a separate sovereign nation

 

catalina is california

but is the distance

from a long beach pier

to there

california?

 

indians couldn’t comprehend containment

like the beatles

they followed the sun

 

but at what geographic coordinates

is the song of los angeles

no longer sung?

where do the dark streets of decay end?

 

if i posted a sign behind

mariasol cocina mexicana restaurant

on the santa monica pier

“you are now leaving california”

would i be able to win a court case

to let the sign stand

and all those worms on hooks

past the pier are no longer

under local jurisdiction?

 

the answer is not the point

the point is the answer

that there is so much information

we do not know

nestled among the neon

yet we do not hesitate

to recite a requiem for righteousness
but when i express

nothing is beautiful enough

to get in the back seat with

to obscure the view

by fogging up the windows

i find your foundation is sand

easily eroded by longitudinal waves

 

all i crave is conversation

but it’s difficult to converse

with someone

who has a mouth full of sand

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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