New Poetry by Steve De France

Angels of the Night

I drive back to tinsel town on Sunset Boulevard. 
Hollywood---a town with its legs wide open,
An American landscape where fast food swathes
the night sky with burning cow flesh. Lowered 
cars gyrate, rumble, boom, and with darkened windows,
prowl among fleshy bistros teeming with stale sex, 
XXX rated movies, and unlive sex acts. 

L.A. is the gun waiting to go off in your face.
Angels of the night linger on street corners, 
as streets crawl with immigrants, domestic freaks, 
and Zoo People from Montana--- here to touch 
Bogart’s wig---or Monroe’s wax breast.

All have vaguely heard an ancient culture 
plans to kill them. They feel distantly restless.

Still they consume all things plastic,
 knowing less than more is always nothing.

At times they laugh uncontrollably


- Steve De France 2016

 

Steve De France is a widely published poet, playwright and essayist both in America and in Great Britain. His work has appeared in literary publications in America, England, Canada, France, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, India, Australia, and New Zealand. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Poetry in both 2002 and 2003. Recent publications include The Wallace Stevens Journal, The Mid-American Poetry Review, Ambit, Atlantic, Clean Sheets, Poetrybay, Yellow Mama and The Sun. In England he won a Reader's Award in Orbis Magazine for his poem "Hawks." In the United States he won the Josh Samuels' Annual Poetry Competition (2003) for his poem: "The Man Who Loved Mermaids." His play THE KILLER had it's world premier at the GARAGE THEATRE in Long Beach, California (Sept-October 2006). He has received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Chapman University for his writing. Most recently his poem "Gregor's Wings" has been nominated for The Best of The Net by Poetic Diversity.