The Valley

On Moorpark-The businesspeople walk in twos or threes
to eat sushi and submarine sandwiches with no tomato
Dogs grow tired running with half naked children
throwing black matted sticks in Libbit Park
Squirrels chatter over chain link fences
Too busy to count their acorn bounties
Israelis shawarma with amateur psychics
telling my mother when she’ll lose her hair

On Moorpark-Daniel Geft and his soon to be ex-girlfriend smoke joints
watch Japanese anime until she gets a message from another, turns “I’ve got to go” “Where?” “Away” [from you]
Four lawyers discuss evicting their client’s son. He will win the settlement. His co- worker will file papers and bring in 943 Hindis to this country.
Moses gets a stiff neck when Rachel Stark throws a candy too hard during
her cousin’s Bar-Mitzvah reading and there will be a lot of ow ow ows. Her
mother will die of bone cancer the next year.
She is thirteen. [The girl, not the mother]
My grandfather watches Matlock eats green pea soup and misses his son, who doesn’t
speak Hungarian, sadly.
I play with Legos until my spaceship is built, with seats for eight. After dinner I’m
going to Mars. You’re coming with me, whether you'd like to or not.