Stravinsky in L.A.

By Elizabeth Alexander b. 1962 Elizabeth Alexander

In white pleated trousers, peering through green

sunshades, looking for the way the sun is red

noise, how locusts hiss to replicate the sun.

What is the visual equivalent

of syncopation? Rows of seared palms wrinkle

in the heat waves through green glass. Sprinklers

tick, tick, tick. The Watts Towers aim to split

the sky into chroma, spires tiled with rubble

nothing less than aspiration. I’ve left

minarets for sun and syncopation,

sixty-seven shades of green which I have

counted, beginning: palm leaves, front and back,

luncheon pickle, bottle glass, etcetera.

One day I will comprehend the different

grades of red. On that day I will comprehend

these people, rhythms, jazz, Simon Rodia,

Watts, Los Angeles, aspiration.

“Stravinsky in L.A.” by Elizabeth Alexander. From Body of Life, published by Tia Chucha Press. Copyright 1996 Elizabeth Alexander. Used by permission of the author.

Source: Poetry (April 1992).

Stravinsky in L.A.

Stravinsky in L.A.

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