time to leave la

(May 2022. Met with Luca, Brian, and Laser for Ethiopian food in Little Ethiopia. Talked daopoetry, lots of hope and potential to make it real. I wrote this after parting from them, with Luca flying that day and myself leaving LA imminently.)

our skins full of injera
we stopped to smell flowers
though the sweetest just passed—

a wall of white and green found
on my walk back alone—

the rich scent which earlier stopped me
subconsciously to sniff something
two flower bushes too late and so

we smelled the wrong flowers rightly.

the side of the garbage truck reads
“i belong, you belong, we belong.”

the word advertised on the billboard—
“confidentially”.

maybe luca is right;
it is time to leave la.