Los Angeles
A father’s angry prophecy inspires a poem about the things we do despite those telling us not to. Who wants to turn it into a rock anthem?
My father was born and raised in Los Angeles, and I lived there myself until the age of six. We traveled back frequently to visit relatives as I was growing up. In my early twenties, I planned a trip there with a girlfriend. My father told me, in a tone of prophecy, that if I went to L.A. I was going to die. This made so little sense that it terrified me. What did he know? I went anyway. I did not die, though I did lose my virginity. Was he really talking about my soul? When I sat down a while back to write a poem about what my father said, it came out more like rock lyrics. If you happen to be in a band and want to turn this into a song, be my guest. That would really tick the old man off.
you can’t go to Los Angeles you’ll die if you go to Los Angeles you can’t go to New York City New York City will kill you so declares the voice of your God so let it be written, so let it be dumb the gutters run with tainted blood every home an inoperable lump the mailman carries a switchblade knife a suicide pill in the bus driver’s tooth the prophecy leaves the details vague you won’t see it coming, that terminal truth you can’t go to Los Angeles you’ll die on Eagle Rock Boulevard you can’t go to New York City Alphabet City will kill you dead so stay where you are, go to church, pray to God your feet can’t grow roots in a city of dust don’t move a muscle or bat your third eye chain your wax ears to the flag’s sturdy mast where the holes in the street are not festering wounds the wind at the door not the Devil’s foul breath a day to your God is a thousand awed years the day you walk out is the hour of death you can’t go to Los Angeles in the city of angels you’d find yourself you can’t go to New York City Avenue C might could save your soul ∅
A couple of decades back, I wrote a science fiction story set in Los Angeles. I called it “Observations from the City of Angels,” though when it appeared in Salon it somehow became “Love in the Age of Spyware.” It grew from related soil, and I’m pretty proud of it. Check it out.
<3