FOUR POEMS ABOUT PALM TREES

A photo I took while driving on Hollywood Boulevard.

Here are four poems sparked by memories of when I was in Los Angeles a few years back...

I KISSED THE PALM TREE AND THE PALM TREE SAID FUCK OFF

by matt burns

I busted out of the American Airlines terminal at LAX

I saw the first palm tree I’d ever seen

I ran up to it, hugged and kissed it

Maybe it was just a Pacific Ocean breeze whistling by my ear

But I could have sworn that I heard the tree say FUCK OFF

SPIRITS BEHIND THE PALM TREES

by matt burns

I remember walking down Hollywood Boulevard

Rolling my suitcase over the pink and charcoal marble

The Hollywood stars passing beneath my feet

And I had a weird feeling…

I could feel

And in my mind’s eye I could see…

Spirits kind of poking their heads around the corners of buildings

And hiding out behind the palm trees

And they seemed to all be curious about me

Like they were checking me out

They were shy and timid

A little wounded

Some were even maybe traumatized

I think they knew I could feel them

And almost even see them

Hunter S. Thompson once said that Hollywood is like one giant graveyard

It’s true

I think there are several spirits just hanging out on the Boulevard

Stuck in some kind of middle plane

Lost and confused, kind of lingering around

Afraid to move on

While others maybe don’t want to move on

Unable to imagine a heaven better than Hollywood

Why leave the ‘place to be’?

They had heaven on earth

Why move on to any other alleged heaven?

And other spirits may just be residual energy

Like a skipping record

Repeating the same pattern

Looking for the brass ring of fame and fortune

It’s gotta be around here somewhere

Gotta be around here…

Hollywood is one place in the world

Where even if there aren’t many people around

You are very much NOT alone

You are in the presence of many

And you are being watched

WATCHING THE PALM TREE FROM THE BALCONY

by matt burns

I remember the first night in Hollywood

I was staying with a friend on North Cherokee

We got pretty drunk

We drank at the apartment

Then we drank in a small dog park

And then we went to a small bar on Highland

After last call we went over to the Chinese Theater

The cement forecourt was completely empty

It was quiet

And it was peaceful

Just me

My friend, his girlfriend

And the spirits

I hopped from one set of footprints

To the next

Fred Astaire

Clark Gable

Groucho Marx…

I went back to the apartment

I had a pretty good buzz

My friend went to bed

I sat outside on the stucco balcony

I saw the only palm tree visible

I stayed there on the balcony

And just stared at the palm tree moving in the breeze

All my life I had waited to see a palm tree

And I didn’t want to stop looking at it

I was there

In Hollywood

Finally

At the place to be

The sky started to mist

And the palm kept moving with the breeze

I didn’t want morning to come

It was just me and the palm tree

Together at last

Yes

I was in the place to be

The place to be was no longer in the future

The place to be

Was

The

Present

OLD PEOPLE HAVE DREAMS, TOO

by matt burns

It’s weird when you see an old lady in a small Hollywood neighborhood

She’s raking her yard or taking out the garbage

The old lady juxtaposed with the palm trees is strange

Like she’s an old woman playing in a playground

Seems out of place

But you have to remember

For some people,

Dreams never die

And they hold onto their dream

Until they’re very old

And until they die

And they want to stay close to the palm trees throughout

I really admire

And love

These people

Because most people allow their dream to die

By age

40

Or maybe earlier

If you can hold onto that dream

And stay close to the palm trees

Well through your 80s or even 90s

Even if you don’t achieve it

Then you’re my hero