Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Imperial Beach remains remote and intolerable

I walk around and smile, enjoying it while it lasts

Bill Mohr was born in Norfolk, VA, and grew up there and in Imperial Beach.
Bill Mohr was born in Norfolk, VA, and grew up there and in Imperial Beach.

1967: “My World Fell Down”

  • Imperial Beach remains remote and intolerable,
  • Both in memory and all its stammering desire.
  • My radio flourished with L.A.’s visionary decibels.
  • I feared its LSD as friendly fire.
  • The hippies seemed indulgent to a fault,
  • None of them theirs, and if the Asian wars
  • Demanded disobedience, was not their cult
  • Supreme in tantalizing escapist doors?
  • And then “My World Fell Down.” Heard only once,
  • Its interlude of cosmic comedy
  • Sufficed to wake me up and remedy
  • My isolation from a hip scene’s clowns.

The Missing Sock

  • Surely it lurks
  • somewhere near.
  • I love you the same
  • but as never before,
  • the way socks stick
  • in the crevices of
  • towels, shirts,
  • and underwear,
  • hot and slick
  • from the dryer,
  • shaken loose
  • to be together.

Locked Ward

  • Curled up, three to a room, curtained apart,
  • the patients are allowed no bedside phones,
  • so when my cell phone scats, my mother asks,
  • “Who’s that?” “Your youngest daughter, Joni.”
  • The favorite of six. I don’t blame them
  • for wanting me to leave. In halls,
  • the others’ wheelchairs prowl like limousines
  • no longer hunted down by paparazzi.
  • One veteran plops his kit bag down,
  • then kneels, adjusts his rolled up cuffs,
  • huts up attention, genuflects to tie
  • shoelaces once again. Guard duty,
  • he must think, from 20:00 to 0600.
  • My sister ends her call. I offer avocado, ripe
  • banana, sweet potatoes. “Butter! Butter on
  • my sweet potato. Get some from the refrigerator.
  • What do you mean — there isn’t one?” Her nurse
  • comes by with stupefying medicine.
  • “If no one visits, when can they go outside
  • and let the sunlight ease their stifled skin?”
  • They don’t. The recreation room entombs.
  • An orderly taps the password code.
  • Again,
  • I breathe the tainted air, belched from a refinery
  • two miles away, enlisting port and highway truck.
  • The larger ward, locked too, though masked;
  • I walk around and smile, enjoying while it lasts.

Bill Mohr was born in Norfolk, VA, and grew up there and in Imperial Beach, CA. After moving to Los Angeles and publishing books under the imprint of Momentum Press, he got a Ph.D. in literature from University of California, San Diego, and has taught at California State University, Long Beach, since 2006. His collections of poetry include a bilingual edition, Pruebas Ocultas (Bonobos Editores, Mexico, 2015). His account of West Coast poetry, Holdouts: The Los Angeles Poetry Renaissance 1948–1992, was published in 2011 by the University of Iowa Press. He has also edited or co-edited three anthologies of Los Angeles or West Coast poets.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Melissa Etheridge, The Imaginary Amazon

Events April 1-April 3, 2024
Next Article

Reader Music Issue short takes

Obervatory's mosh pit, frenetic Rafael Payare, Lemonhead chaos, bleedforthescene, Coronado Tasting Room
Bill Mohr was born in Norfolk, VA, and grew up there and in Imperial Beach.
Bill Mohr was born in Norfolk, VA, and grew up there and in Imperial Beach.

1967: “My World Fell Down”

  • Imperial Beach remains remote and intolerable,
  • Both in memory and all its stammering desire.
  • My radio flourished with L.A.’s visionary decibels.
  • I feared its LSD as friendly fire.
  • The hippies seemed indulgent to a fault,
  • None of them theirs, and if the Asian wars
  • Demanded disobedience, was not their cult
  • Supreme in tantalizing escapist doors?
  • And then “My World Fell Down.” Heard only once,
  • Its interlude of cosmic comedy
  • Sufficed to wake me up and remedy
  • My isolation from a hip scene’s clowns.

The Missing Sock

  • Surely it lurks
  • somewhere near.
  • I love you the same
  • but as never before,
  • the way socks stick
  • in the crevices of
  • towels, shirts,
  • and underwear,
  • hot and slick
  • from the dryer,
  • shaken loose
  • to be together.

Locked Ward

  • Curled up, three to a room, curtained apart,
  • the patients are allowed no bedside phones,
  • so when my cell phone scats, my mother asks,
  • “Who’s that?” “Your youngest daughter, Joni.”
  • The favorite of six. I don’t blame them
  • for wanting me to leave. In halls,
  • the others’ wheelchairs prowl like limousines
  • no longer hunted down by paparazzi.
  • One veteran plops his kit bag down,
  • then kneels, adjusts his rolled up cuffs,
  • huts up attention, genuflects to tie
  • shoelaces once again. Guard duty,
  • he must think, from 20:00 to 0600.
  • My sister ends her call. I offer avocado, ripe
  • banana, sweet potatoes. “Butter! Butter on
  • my sweet potato. Get some from the refrigerator.
  • What do you mean — there isn’t one?” Her nurse
  • comes by with stupefying medicine.
  • “If no one visits, when can they go outside
  • and let the sunlight ease their stifled skin?”
  • They don’t. The recreation room entombs.
  • An orderly taps the password code.
  • Again,
  • I breathe the tainted air, belched from a refinery
  • two miles away, enlisting port and highway truck.
  • The larger ward, locked too, though masked;
  • I walk around and smile, enjoying while it lasts.

Bill Mohr was born in Norfolk, VA, and grew up there and in Imperial Beach, CA. After moving to Los Angeles and publishing books under the imprint of Momentum Press, he got a Ph.D. in literature from University of California, San Diego, and has taught at California State University, Long Beach, since 2006. His collections of poetry include a bilingual edition, Pruebas Ocultas (Bonobos Editores, Mexico, 2015). His account of West Coast poetry, Holdouts: The Los Angeles Poetry Renaissance 1948–1992, was published in 2011 by the University of Iowa Press. He has also edited or co-edited three anthologies of Los Angeles or West Coast poets.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches
Next Article

Summit Fellowship wants to be a home of belonging

Unitarian Universalism allows you to be exactly who you are in the moment
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.