L.A. L.A. land...

this is a memory of when i was growing up and my parents moved like gypsies...

living in a dirty hotel

out of our u-haul

dad out finding work

mom out finding work

me and a fridge with a packet of cheese

outside the smog

giving a brown yellow hue

through the hotel window

i can see people walk by

smiling

dirty

flip flops

cut offs

some are like cowboys

some are like street people

dad came back with money

mom had some tips

they took me to disneyland

and for the day

we forgot we were poor

this air

heavy and sooty

same air

that morrison breathed

that celebrities breathe

i'm wondering

what's the next town

 

next hotel

next neighbors walking by

where will i settle

and make friends

maybe fall in love

someday

and raise children

someday

but for now

i'm in L.A.

in a dirty hotel

with nothing to eat

but cheese...

 

Reviews

[Alessander]

Sounds like my childhood. I too grew up moving around a lot, and the one place we did stay was a hotel in downtown l.a. Nice job, ma lol

I like the detail of looking through the peep hole. It can be a metaphor for so many things, a sort of distorted childhood or even alternate version of reality, which artist tend to create to endure the suffering.

this hits close to home.

[Revolutionary]

I love the tiltle and it truely is lalaland if you mean that everyone is high.Sad poem but funny too.I think you should point out in Tajuana thy have to eat the rats that steal the cheese

[Quinn Blackburn]

And the cheese stands alone :o) Man, I do not miss those stupid smog alert days! You would think more people would take it to heart when we've made the air so dirty that it isn't safe to be out breathing it! Your memories here have triggered a few of my own :o) I remember staring at the great blank wall of the unwritten future, and wondering if I would still be stuck in that crazy city brimming with creative and destructive energy. I'd keep the cheese though. :o) Excellent writing! I like the use of senses here. Sight, sound, smell, taste... all things that help us forge and retain memories. well done!

[Ru Banerjee]

there is an inherent irony and dry humor beneath the metaphors you have used to describe your vagabond childhood days--the cheese and the dirty hotel, the heavy and sooty air, the trip to Disneyland that made you feel ecstatic for a day. There is an irresistible vulnerability in all this depiction that makes this piece all the more moving and humane, with all the apparent mundane accounts of the everyday life trying hard to portray a bittersweet reality.

[paul]

great you got to go to disneyland... they (disneyland) were lucky to have you.
and cheese wants for more... a condiment, not a meal
but you got to go to disneyland... disneyland.

[NoneOfYourBusiness akaK..]

only one unique you ~ memory is our clay~

[Aven]

I totally agree with Plelitte on this one, the thing about the cheese just cracks me up, but at the same time I realize it is not a good place to be. Well written !

[Crinkle°]

here is a particular childhood! no sister or brother to share it? It can help in this case.

[Fran Marie]

not exactly a pleasant way to about one's daily life ~ well written

[Michael of Gilead]

Now I'm hungry....