June 20-26, 2016: Poetry from Shelly Blankman and Erren Kelly

My Father’s Typewriter

You never knew, did you,
how your typing lulled me
to sleep, saved me
from starless nights,
when I lay in bed, afraid
the sun would never rise?

You never knew, did you,
how much I laughed inside,
watching you hunt and peck
faster than others who’d been taught
the proper way?

You never knew how I loved the smell
of carbon ribbon or how I hated
the “c” so faded it had to be
pounded to show on paper,
those thin yellow sheets that ripped
if you pulled just a little too hard
from the carriage.

I wrote my first paper on that typewriter
and your grandsons used it, too,
long after science slew the dinosaur
and left the typewriter in its wake
a useless fossil.
The typewriter is silent;
two years now, you’ve been gone.
It’s caked with dust, the “c” still broken,
but it doesn’t matter anymore.

I can still hear you tapping,
smell the carbon, see the paper,
and remember how all those
years ago, you and your typewriter
saved me from starless nights.

Flower Lady Of Echo Park

Rumor has it
She once tried out for
The Miss America pageant
In ’76
And narrowly missed the preliminaries
Some say she was once married
To a guy
Who worked with Donald Trump
But she just changes the subject
Whenever she’s asked

Her flower stand is in
Front of
Walgreens
Sometimes, I say hi to her as i’m
Going to a bookstore across the
Street

You can never read too
Much

Latinos
Outnumber whites in L.A.
Yet are killed more than
Whites
Mexican girls pretend to
"No habla.ingles," when they
Don’t want to be
Bothered
Condos are quickly replacing
The old school houses
Here

A Chicano poet
Thanks me for showing up
At a poetry reading on LaBrea Drive
Otherwise, he would’ve been
The only colored person there

I watch a white girl
Doing stand up
Wearing an NWA. t-shirt
She does an impersonation
Of a Mexican
cheech. and chong.
Would appreciate.

I joke with her
Telling her, "she does mexican
Well."

Donald Trump is obscenely
Popular and no one
Laughs at the thought
He could be president

Mexican girls look like
Kate Upton
And white girls pay hundreds
Of dollars
For a tan
some blacks and chicanas
Hate

I give the flower lady a
Five dollar bill
She tries to give
Me a bouquet
But I refuse

I know now the dirtiest
Word in the English language
Isn’t the words
I hear hipster girls use
As they talk over
Coffee

The dirtiest word is
Change.