City of Angels or Screens
I swipe clean the homescreen of Los Angeles
In the family truck, I give those glass panes a peek
Surrounded by subway, street, and scene
Past winter ground stripping olive trees
I see four windows on wheels nulling doors
My palms pass laundry mats or liquor stores
By bonnet mascots and broken doors
Icy cracks are my dignity while sirens stare
Living life in the passenger seat
My dreams just bittersweet legacy -
Parents crying the perception weep
Facts and fiction are victory and defeat
Why aren’t my dreams how I’m perceived?
Every day, my intentions bury me
City Cracked Through
BLACKOUT my body is broken
Crashing into BEEP Beep beep
My limbs find the 405 freeway
As cars pass by in a blur
I need purpose more than nurses
So I reason why
I deserved this
Images flood my mind
Of an LA frozen in time
City of Angels: Survival Scene
The stage of Los Angeles opens
By burning curtains
Gone are the faith
Of libraries and churches
Cul-de-sac’s just dumping grounds of purpose
Characters skip and slide in sticky concrete
Fuel streaming down sidewalks
Turning to tire grease
Culver Steps, Santa Monica Pier, PCH,
Are stickers pinning this angel production in place
And frozen on the fringe of "outside" LA
Death was my chariot
Why didn’t I die?
Pain lingers in my mind
City of Angels, Stand By
Los Angeles: Wake Up
In this long lived city we inherit
The past isn’t a mirror, but a staircase of merit
As the son of an immigrant mother
White skin covers my Asian roots under
Yet I’m seen as the system that kills color?
“I can feel all I want, I just can’t suffer”
And inheritance made me an oppressor
Sweat keeps silence, like rain keeps snow
This suffrage storm rages without wind to grow
My thoughts trap me in a coma of cold
City of Stalling Angels
Mind Awake, it slows to a stop
To show my friend called Angel City
Abbot Kinney ice cream shops
Silence is our form of sentimentality
We see walkers who stand and wait
Forgetting about now until it’s too late
Licking scoops of calm, swallowing pain away
Presence feels like another form of waste
City of Silent Angels
Here I stay, woven into Angels
Seeing, Sorry, sorry, stop
Sweat lining chapped lips that curve up
On another Abbot Kinney walker
Her varsity jacket isn’t a bother
Glittery green and drenched in water
How many oceans of emotion lie underneath?
Silence is my scream, so that’s how we speak
My eyes have thrown away their key
Sinking me in my mind until I see
More than maybe
City of Superficiality
Wanting To Awaken: Los Angeles
This angel troupe dances in a surface circus
Knowing progress loses its stopping voice
As power balances on skin toned tightropes
Popcorn kernels seep into each perfect pot of gold
Alumni are surprised by the fear being shown
Since safety nets replaced spikes below
In dressing rooms, they let actors know
“When control loses a skin tone
Surface blends into universal
Racism a worldwide rainbow
We boil down to more than skin
Because boil us down
And we are humans within
“So focused on becoming you forget to be
So why do quiet ones still believe?”
I hear right as I BREATHE, Breathe and breathe
City Awakened
I see more eyes open
Than ideas awakened
Tears in sunrises closer
Than caskets not vacant
Learners burning out hour by hour
Their actions really objects of power
Teachers who smother wonder fires
Yet expect to gradually inspire
Salary workers illustrating worlds
Forced on white collar diets
Leaving from “one more" for plural
Is a coup of courageous quiet
City of Mystery
Of Complexity
Sanctuary of Speech
I awaken in a Los Angeles
I hope we never leave
Using silence mixed with screams
I see children sprinkle poppy seeds
From Hollywood to Venice Beach
Mending this city with speech
We awaken, but don’t end
So I know
Every street can be born again
Using devils speech and angel hands
I started with a suicide
Killing the old me
So I tried on a dream
Letting dust collect my diary
Awaken. Lie. Down. Sleep
Flame ignited by peace
Feeling the strength of time
Like a summer breeze
Burying the selfish screen
To plant the olive tree
City of Angels (Enough Will Achieve)
To Every Angel: Just BELIEVE
I swipe clean the homescreen of Los Angeles
In the family truck, I give those glass panes a peek
Surrounded by subway, street, and scene
Past winter ground stripping olive trees
I see four windows on wheels nulling doors
My palms pass laundry mats or liquor stores
By bonnet mascots and broken doors
Icy cracks are my dignity while sirens stare
Living life in the passenger seat
My dreams just bittersweet legacy -
Parents crying the perception weep
Facts and fiction are victory and defeat
Why aren’t my dreams how I’m perceived?
Every day, my intentions bury me
City Cracked Through
BLACKOUT my body is broken
Crashing into BEEP Beep beep
My limbs find the 405 freeway
As cars pass by in a blur
I need purpose more than nurses
So I reason why
I deserved this
Images flood my mind
Of an LA frozen in time
City of Angels: Survival Scene
The stage of Los Angeles opens
By burning curtains
Gone are the faith
Of libraries and churches
Cul-de-sac’s just dumping grounds of purpose
Characters skip and slide in sticky concrete
Fuel streaming down sidewalks
Turning to tire grease
Culver Steps, Santa Monica Pier, PCH,
Are stickers pinning this angel production in place
And frozen on the fringe of "outside" LA
Death was my chariot
Why didn’t I die?
Pain lingers in my mind
City of Angels, Stand By
Los Angeles: Wake Up
In this long lived city we inherit
The past isn’t a mirror, but a staircase of merit
As the son of an immigrant mother
White skin covers my Asian roots under
Yet I’m seen as the system that kills color?
“I can feel all I want, I just can’t suffer”
And inheritance made me an oppressor
Sweat keeps silence, like rain keeps snow
This suffrage storm rages without wind to grow
My thoughts trap me in a coma of cold
City of Stalling Angels
Mind Awake, it slows to a stop
To show my friend called Angel City
Abbot Kinney ice cream shops
Silence is our form of sentimentality
We see walkers who stand and wait
Forgetting about now until it’s too late
Licking scoops of calm, swallowing pain away
Presence feels like another form of waste
City of Silent Angels
Here I stay, woven into Angels
Seeing, Sorry, sorry, stop
Sweat lining chapped lips that curve up
On another Abbot Kinney walker
Her varsity jacket isn’t a bother
Glittery green and drenched in water
How many oceans of emotion lie underneath?
Silence is my scream, so that’s how we speak
My eyes have thrown away their key
Sinking me in my mind until I see
More than maybe
City of Superficiality
Wanting To Awaken: Los Angeles
This angel troupe dances in a surface circus
Knowing progress loses its stopping voice
As power balances on skin toned tightropes
Popcorn kernels seep into each perfect pot of gold
Alumni are surprised by the fear being shown
Since safety nets replaced spikes below
In dressing rooms, they let actors know
“When control loses a skin tone
Surface blends into universal
Racism a worldwide rainbow
We boil down to more than skin
Because boil us down
And we are humans within
“So focused on becoming you forget to be
So why do quiet ones still believe?”
I hear right as I BREATHE, Breathe and breathe
City Awakened
I see more eyes open
Than ideas awakened
Tears in sunrises closer
Than caskets not vacant
Learners burning out hour by hour
Their actions really objects of power
Teachers who smother wonder fires
Yet expect to gradually inspire
Salary workers illustrating worlds
Forced on white collar diets
Leaving from “one more" for plural
Is a coup of courageous quiet
City of Mystery
Of Complexity
Sanctuary of Speech
I awaken in a Los Angeles
I hope we never leave
Using silence mixed with screams
I see children sprinkle poppy seeds
From Hollywood to Venice Beach
Mending this city with speech
We awaken, but don’t end
So I know
Every street can be born again
Using devils speech and angel hands
I started with a suicide
Killing the old me
So I tried on a dream
Letting dust collect my diary
Awaken. Lie. Down. Sleep
Flame ignited by peace
Feeling the strength of time
Like a summer breeze
Burying the selfish screen
To plant the olive tree
City of Angels (Enough Will Achieve)
To Every Angel: Just BELIEVE