San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly

Lalo Kikiriki
L.A. RIVER BY THE NUMBERS

3 long chords blast
and echo off the concrete,
drowning the river's chitter,
the heron's cry.
Framed between tangled fronds
of 4 palmettos,
9 empty flatcars rattle, heading north
for more.
2 12-foot fan palms lounge the streambed,
wrapped round and round and round
with shredded throw-rugs
tattered jeans,
Calvin Klein.
Whose panties were these once;
who paid 10 bucks?

Gliding through the shallows,
8 ducklings trail behind their stippled mother.
A 6-year-old
is running with her father,
slows to a walk to step the river's stones.
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
skipping back, the girl outstrips the man
9 paces,
10,
11,
flushing the heron,
3 cries and
back to 1.