It’s not the Cote d’Azur, Charles de Gaulle Etoile;

no way Rio. It’s not that dreamy or loamy,

But L.A. accommodates its refuseniks & nouveaux riches,

Because anything grows in this come-hither climate—

African daisies, orchids, bougainvillea,

Plumeria & birds-of-paradise—

Eucalyptus, jacaranda & Italian cypress

Can recreate their foreign identity here.

Here could be anywhere Mediterranean.

In a landscape of transplants,

Historylessness makes strange stimulacra.

But the grafts take—like plastic surgery.