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| The Los Angeles River flows at a powerful rate as a huge storm brings flooding and landslides to the west coast. Photograph: David McNew/Getty Images via The Guardian, January 16, 2023 |
I listen to Paradise Lost
in my car as the rain pours
at night, picturing the first
couple as they huddle among
the grasses and fruits.
From my car window, as if
up toward heaven, I see an
uphill rain-slick boulevard,
passenger planes landing
at LAX, like blurry UFO’s.
The sound is exhilarating,
an aquatic thrashing, my car
sloshing over corner oceans,
the wipers struggling to sweep
a sinless version of the city.
I roll the window down
just as Satan calls out his
fellow seraphim, like a zillion
tuna schooling out of a
darkened precipice.
Even if it’s atmospheric,
and a river, it’s still rain,
the wind wind, the forecast?
Our fallen state, our bodies
water-logged, the reflection
of all the lights at night
splitting heaven and hell
into equal refractions.
Alejandro Escudé published his first full-length collection of poems My Earthbound Eye in September 2013. He holds a master’s degree in creative writing from UC Davis and teaches high school English. Originally from Argentina, Alejandro lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.