There’s a longhaired crazy man
Braiding hemp with his toe.
There’s spinal realignment by “Carl”
On a mat by the beach.
There’s a man in a box
On Wilshire Boulevard
And some of the best piano
I’ve ever heard
On wheels in Santa Monica.

But the most poignant
Memory is this:
A cockroach on his back
Kicking his way
Across a sunlit sidewalk.
This is California;
City of the fallen Angels.

 

March 11, 1997