Showing posts with label Rio Hondo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rio Hondo. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Noon on the Rio Hondo



out on the wide spread of the West
the line between the earth and sky
seems so thin      and we so unprotected

here in the Rio Hondo wash
the sun teases out bits of mirage
from the hot bottom of the concrete channel

while under the Montebello bluffs
a wooden roof and benches form
a place to hide from endless sky

where a clump of men sit in the shade
some homeless      some have just come down
to pass the empty middle of the day

what to say about these men
who have no work to call them back
from the quick breath of a forty minute lunch

flap meat and onions sizzle
on a little grill
lunch preparations     but other than that

they meditate beneath their tree
on an airplane headed to LAX
and the march of sun down to the coast

while on a distant overpass
trucks and cars slow    then stop   then start again
radios play and air conditioners hum

and on this warm day when a beer will feel good
their friend approaches on a bike     a cool case of Modelo
balanced on his handlebars




© Frank Kearns 2015

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Ghost Stories


The close sun of Los Angeles
is hard on ghosts
you won’t find them as you might
lurking deep in redwood forests
or soaring on the wind
in the high sky of Mojave

In the light we tell our stories
cheerfully with bits of lunch
           at noisy restaurant tables
standing in chance market meetings
or bravely in fluorescent
          story-telling classes

The ghosts prefer to hide and wait for dark
to float down moon-lit river channels
tiptoe among the black palm tree silhouettes
echo back the words they hear
          in corners of dim living rooms
collect the things that we have hidden deep
and then explode us from our deepest sleep





© 2015 Frank Kearns