MARINA
Soft Warning

I love her but she makes me nervous

Impermanence permeates
every valley, every canyon

A soft warning:

“you cannot have me forever”

I love her but she makes me nervous

I know it’s unsustainable to live here
—cruel to take her last drops of water

for our swimming pools

(I love her but she makes me nervous)

So I wait until it’s time to vacatе
to a new place with less thrеat

of droughts, wildfires, earthquakes—
But what if I don’t find another LA?

I love her... But she makes me nervous
To put down roots, though I so badly want to,
but I fear they’ll be cut up and snatched if I do

Is it predictable of me to fall in love with a
place built on shaky ground?