Beautiful Faith

Fryman Canyon

In the middle of Los Angeles all the winged monkeys exercise

A steady line of people parking their cars as close as they can to the mouth of the hike

And grimly climbing.

 One woman cuts a huge psychic swath
as she drags her body and life up the incline

“............. IFF I feel GOOD I can!................................But what is me feeling good?”

Behind her doctors, perpetrators,
useless remedies
 and her nanny from when she was 6
hold tight to her shoulders and leave a trough of haze in the energy

The fragrance and damp from the green

Curry plant, salvia, pepper tree

 sweat , sweet

 like they’ve been struggling  with gravity too

But they endure with grace

Two women whose faces have frozen in self disgust go down as I go up

“.....flirtation and of course she ‘s  too young”

On her back sit her no prize of a husband,

a house thats too big and to someone else’s standards

and an indifferent teenager

complaining of being on a hike that’s not of

 His choosing.

She struggles under the weight of it all

But soldiers on-

dragging pretty young girls

whose attention is elsewhere

on long ropes

behind her