Tangled in Big Sur

I wish Adorno were alive
The misanthropic ol' bastard knew loneliness
When he fled Weimar for LA, upon arrival,
the intellectual never found a place on the beach without:
the striped umbrellas, sunglasses, starlet cocktails coattails, the horoscopes,
stepping in chewing gum

He tore open the bright blue sky of LA
Hollywood showed bombed-out Germany
Primed the movie-goers with its imminence of fear

One sunset in Tangiers, we slept under the sheets on benches
without mosquito netting and, sometimes,
I held your face more comfortably than I ever held your hand
the rosary beads clicking as the cab veers right
when, to me, rehearsing meant knowing and
a forty after my four o'clock class

to you and your prairies, prioress
the ones you can't see in the inchoate design
of your eyelids closed and the sun shines through

Jennifer Sussex has been featured in The Village Voice, The Chicago Tribune, PBS Student Voices: Washington Week, Our Young Art, The Gargoyle and The Michigan Daily. All material on this site is subject to licensing under the Creative Commons.