August in L.A.
a litany of the familiar,
delphinium, dianthus, columbine,
each flower, a vise on the redolent pocket of time,
you seek deliverance
among red palmed petals of portulaca,
transplanted from a garden in Vietnam,
now wrapped tight in evening’s bud.
What grows in L.A.
is common to both lands
and you listen for sounds of Asian gardens–
bamboo creaking in an October wind,
bike wheels on gravel,
the clink of a teaspoon
against the cobalt rim of china
and in high grass, feline declarations.
But, here, in L.A.
under the drone of imminent freeways
the purple vine of morning glory
chokes the trellis and the memory
of an egret’s call ascending
from rice fields pales
against the clamor of the angel’s city.
An unspeakable loneliness
claims your life as the past
clenches shut, like portulaca in shadow.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 28, Issue 4.
Laurie Kuntz is a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee and two-time Best of the Net Nominee. In 2024, she won a Pushcart Prize. Her 8th poetry book, Shelter In Place is published by Shanti Arts Press. She holds an MFA in poetry from Vermont College. Her work has been published in Gyroscope Review, Roanoke Review, Third Wednesday, One Art, Sheila Na Gig, SWWIM, and other journals and anthologies. Her themes stem from working with Southeast Asian refugees, living as an expatriate in Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Brazil, and raising a husband and son.
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