california

Even at hundreds of miles and thousands of feet,
I'm doing the same old
we got there and the girls had to loop around so many times
who has ever picked anyone up at an airport and not have to loop around

I, with my grey shawl sweater that I have no damn idea where it is anymore
looked critically at a palm tree
and shrugged and had my cigarette,
raised my eyebrows approvingly of the warmth of the air

and then we drove,
   
              and that was most of it,

I would like to say I fell in love w/ the highway,
or the lonely taco truck, or the curious museum,
but I remember smoking up often

and making one girl angry and the rest of the trip
blurred like the sandy recesses under my feet into the water
The sun I watched sink beneath the horizon clearly for the first time

and the Pacific was cold,

                       like the other ocean I've been to