The Ugliest City in the World

Isherwood called LA the ugliest city in the world
but loved America because he felt free.
He met Garbo & couldn't resist her Mata Hari
laugh or 'tragic-ironic' eyebrows.
He got to know Thomas Mann & Charlie Chaplin.
When bored, even Tennessee Williams.
He loved the sunset colors: peacock blue & gold.
He stayed for 30 years.

*

LA was my city, driving to UCLA.
Six bookworms squeezed in a Chevy Bel-Air.
We'd start at 7 a.m. drive back at 10 or so.
Should have brought cots & slept in the library
but our parents wanted us home.
We were so innocent, so first generation.

*

Simone de Beauvoir came to LA in 1948.
She recounts visiting Veterans Hospital
in Westwood, Forest Lawn, then Pasadena.
She needed a better tour guide,
found California 'moralistic,' couldn't understand
why the bars closed at midnight.

*

You're more likely to be be murdered or die
on the LA freeway than in an LA earthquake.

Now don't you feel better?