AN IDEAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Poem by Nicole Pasten

Mountains swirled like ancient antique land

Now called sediment placement sites

Blazing red flowers swaying in Silver Sanded Soil

The fusion of reality and illusion steeped in sapphire mist

Transcending Ecstasy

The soul of the moonlight falls

Beneath a sky of industrial civilization

Self-denial Self-indulgence Political inefficiency

Where the innocent adventurer and irredeemable opportunist

Battle the forces of truth that gold can never buy

Fact and fantasy of Los Angeles fiction

The disjunction of old and new worlds

West of Eden South of Eternity

The old booster myth

The City of Angel

As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be