Los Angeles Is Not Empty and The Cat Lady
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(Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, CA)
Los Angeles Is Not Empty
From Boyle Heights to El Sereno
To Hawthorne, Leimert Park and the rest of Crenshaw
Unincorporated East LA, Compton and Gardena
Norwalk and Lincoln Heights
Where Hollywood's camera don't go
And when they do go to South Central
Only the caricature survives editing
The facade that us transplants embrace
Refuses what is prideful and true
About what is happening on Soto Street
And Central Avenue, on Gage, and Imperial
Whittier, Slauson, and Wall
Places that cannot be fully characterized
Where tourism ends and congestion begins
Generations of Angelenos
Represented by the outside
That is wholly Los Angeles
A French Dip on 6th
Cemitas on Lorena
Pupusas on Santa Monica and Dim Sum on Broadway
Neckbones on King and Pancit on Vermont
What us transplants refuse to deny
Is that we will soon exploit
The people who make Los Angeles
The greatest city on the planet
Los Angeles is not empty
The world's view I'll remold
Because of Hollywood's own lethargy
Has no Los Angeles story been told
The Cat Lady
Grooming
Constant incessant grooming
A rough tongue straightening, brooming
Dirt and hair swept
Until cleanliness is kept
The task you have chosen to upkeep
Will ensure that you'll never sleep
