Rowley's Word

We’ve come a long way LA,
from the body of water on the West side that brought my beneficiaries to shore, 

to the lake in the East lit with Silver that I’ll bathe in until my hair no longer weaves through the rugged hands of your hard time.  

LA,

 I surfed your unicorn-rippled waves, and I sank in your velvet smog. 

It’s true, I tried to leave you.  

But we both knew I’d be back, my joie de vivre, because no one in this world wants to love and fight me like you do.

 You – offroading my dangerous curves with the arms and wheels of a soldier and the eyes of an innocent young man. 

You knew I ran with wild horses when I was the Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. 

A Los Feliz dance of second chances…

Pulp Fiction eyes painted on the wall….

As a child I knew I’d come to you, and you’d be waiting for me to make mountains fall.

LA,

I know at times you grow weary because they’ll never stop running to you for gold and a glimmer of candy-appled fruition.

LA,

in spite of a demoralized market, you’re still the place for dreamers and magicians.

LA,

you may just be a cowboy with poetry and a majesty for all the lost boys, and when I hike through the canyon, I summon the Duende with your sweat,

your wings,

your noise.

LA,

you may do your best to drink me under the table, where I vibrate naked, asleep and dreaming, but if you recall, you painted love on my arms - red-lettered, rhapsodized and seething.

(Rendering a warrior for all the wild at heart)  

We’ve come a long way LA,

from facing the mugger of Miracle Mile, who yanked me to the ground by my hair, to throwing fire at the paparazzi, to singing with sex-waxed jazz and savoirfaire.  

We’ve come a long way LA, 

from the healing hands of Venice that opened my third eye to serendipity and November sand, to another soldier, cowboy, and lost angel, who may risk breaking open again.

-Melissa Jun Rowley