Los Angeles in 2026  (A Night Mare Untamed) 

Los Angeles in 2026  (A Night Mare Untamed) 

—owed to Langston Hughes’ “Harlem: A Dream Deferred“

How do you tame a night mare?

Do you curse it
and shake your fist
in its face?
Do you whip it until it bleeds?
Do you refuse to let it sleep?
Do you pay a shrink
to nod it into a blue funk?

Maybe you ride it to death
and then sell it for glue.

Or do you put a bullet through its noggin?

Original poem appearing in my collection titled Turtle Woman & Other Poems under the title “Richmond:  A Nightmare Untamed”