welcome to california

by Mage

I wrote this poem several years ago for a poetry class. I grew up in Southern California, and this poem was created as a reflection of my experiences of that place as being suffocating and fostering of narcissism. I still have some of the same feelings about California, though I think that if I were to write this poem today I would be more descriptive about the oppressive forces I witnessed there. I suppose that's another project for another time!

All those pretty landscapes in Palm Springs
are part of a big grid. I know
the graffiti by heart.

Some old guy trying to prove himself
to a little girl.
He wants her
to think he's Big Somebody with a cigar
and a slick Italian car.
She wants him to think.

Hollywood is not a permit
for visions of grandeur and stupidity.