CONNEY D. WILLIAMS
_________________________________
you are los angeles
complicated as construction
on both the 405 and 5 freeways
necessary and tangled
you script yourself anew, daily
peach stucco, beach, and celluloid
breathing like skyscraper
above the colloquial & CO2
red rock mesa rising pacific
you basin beauty
with the subtle calico fingers
i have always longed
for a los angeles like you, for
brown eyes that burn Arroyo Seco
my porcelain deuce coupe, you
ain’t no Shakespearean chanteuse
but Leimert Park noir
Venice Vixen waxing erudite
via apricot Santa Monica sunsets
and squirming Sepulveda Boulevard
your motif is a garland
never undone by time
bedazzle us poet’s girl
unravel the clockwork of expediency
bless us all like salt water
bless them boats, all of them
crisscross every dry canal
until they are arteries, rife
with wide awake
Bukowski’s & Colemans
whose full moon pages drizzle
you un-desolate woman
have birthed gravity grabbers
those who bend this desert
into hand written love letters
you even walk like poetry
precise and full of economy
are those sierras on your lips
pulling every strand of your hair
elevating your skirt and perimeter
platinum sex symbols can only wish
to coo as you do without deception
O’ great Creator
I need a los angeles, timeless
like this bobbed woman
luminous & loose
the original Library Girl, her skin
tattooed with palabras and stanzas
phrases couple on your tongue
if you make love to me
I will not be your first
but that has never mattered
unsnap your blue blouse
my mouth waters your coast
pull me atop Mt. Washington
I will fall as your Lucifer
pray aloud as your Jesus
I have always longed
for a Los Angeles like you
loosely luminous
luminously loose
my first Library Girl
literary Medusa
If I touch your spine
will your plot be conspicuous
open your mouth again
with uncanny November rain
& thirsty Santa Anas
open your mouth again Dahlia
because I long for a Los Angeles
accessible 24 hours
I need a Los Angeles like you