Fairfax and Santa Monica
Poem (audio)
Happy #TBT & #TravelThursday. Free long read here. Enjoy!
Fairfax and Santa Monica
‘Round here, old Russians in no rush
wait for the next Metro bus
or go about their business
as usual, and I get off the #4 bus
and hustle to his place.
I make a little fuss
with makeup on my sweaty face —
but the gunk is not as severe
as trans folks’, down a few streets
west from here,
at Fairfax and Santa Monica.
This intersection is where
gays meet Russians, Russian-Jews,
eastern Europeans and everyone else.
And it is where I rush
to meet my cute French ex-pat dear
just outside of his flat—
instead of a few streets down
west from here in Boystown,
the heart of WeHo, where he dare
not walk without me— or else
sweet boys’ll rough-tease him hard.
Curious walks of life cross this part:
There’s the rich who fill their whole cart
with good-for-you, gourmet groceries
nearby at Whole Foods— and the poor
who carry and push their whole lives
around in their cart.
Indeed, the disparity’s quite clear.
There’s a sea of white, tan and brown
with a few black and yellow but
most visible— no families nuclear
Well, hardly… regardless of color.
Moreover at the Whole Foods:
I catch eyes with Larry Fishburne
(Morpheus!) on multiple occasions
and routinely spot the lesser celebrities
getting their fancy groceries
(This “celebrity watch” game
has become quite amusing)
What is truly intriguing, though—
all the mushy but tasty WF combinations
I make with my hunky health nut beau
at the cafeteria self-service stations.
I love walking ‘round here,
strolling along with my boyfriend
I have even grown accustomed,
to cold stares caught from old
Russians and the similar kind
from the neighborhood.
I just smile back at them
just as I do at my bf and the gays,
off Fairfax and Santa Monica,
and down a few streets west.
What a queer feeling of home here!
Commentary of Poem:
This is my throwback from 2007! Oh, how the years go by… Judging by recent pictures view online, the immediate area by the intersection has not changed much. Neighborhood around is still ethnically diverse, with a definite Russian/Russian-Jew and gay/queer influence. That French boy of mine is long gone from my life. His flat (if he is still there) has surely gone way up in real estate value. The Whole Foods Market is still there and I bet veteran actor, Larry Fishburne, still stops there to shop.
Travel note:
If you are planning to be in the greater L.A. area, off Fairfax Ave and Santa Monica Blvd, know that it is usually bustling. Such madness of car traffic and the Metros roll down frequently here. Generally speaking, this neighborhood is a relatively “safer” part of what’s commonly thought of L.A. but officially it’s West Hollywood, a separate city within the city of Los Angeles.
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