Through blurred vision and slurred speech and ears ringing in a hundred tones, I stumbled forward across sidewalk slabs of concrete cement and crushed stone.
Where did I travel to this web of life ? Lost and languishing without looking back, lurking in light books where ladies look with industrious aspirations. Expired and rancid I stand wobbling then hunched over lurched forward to the future followed by shadows curtains and strange sounds.
There was nothing left but foreign speech, code words and creeping melodies. The steady drum of my heart beat, with head held high and helpless to hold on for life I live breathing in stagnant air and sweat and dust from the exhaust and dirt flying into the air as ozone choked the vista and the skyline drowns in a grey haze.
City of angels, city on the wind, cold callous and cremated, the spoken words and open dreams drowning in the suffocating silence of defeat and muzzled suffocation.
What was I doing here alone in this city? The families and growth the coffee grounds and plastic cup piled into waste. Wastebaskets disposed in dumpsters the daily discard of the eras equinox.
Ha! There’s no balance here. No precipice of renewal only the monotonous rhythm of discipline and routine. Wake, consume, destroy, waste time; drive drive drive!
Forward time! To the interstate to the barricades to the white lines and yellow ribbons the squinting sun the rattle of mufflers the stop and go the red brake lights bleating in melody as a day dawns and long lines of headlights flicker droning in smooth crawling metaphors to work at dead ends for the days pay, to pay the rent to live!
Long live life in the city! Living loving striving forever forward. Across the concrete ribbons and asphalt plains with names twisted into tax ID and employee numbers.
Let’s kill time! Off we go! An education and training and learning to show up. On time. On schedule. 15 minute breaks and half hours of lunch in cold quiet break rooms fixated on our screens.
Good day to all. Good night to some. The sun rises and sets and then the day’s done.
-Los Angeles, June 2024