“People who don’t know the truth of it make fun of our river; all they see is a tortured trickle that snakes along a concrete gutter like some junkie’s vein.”
–Robert Crais
With Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine under new editorship and new ownership we have entered a new era. Over the last 10 years they have published a few of my stories and poems and I’m super proud of the latest one.
“River City Angel” is the third in a series of noir poems I’ve written and currently available in the May/June issue.
In this one, our speaker is watching the LA River during a storm and looking for answers to questions he doesn’t know to ask.
The Los Angeles River has been a seemingly endless source of inspiration for my writing. A trickle in summer. A torrent during a rainstorm. The concrete walls contain more than just water.
It wasn’t always concrete, but long ago the source of a verdant wetlands. It’s the original pulse of LA. The thing that sustained prehistoric life for indigenous people and the primogenitor of all life in the place now known as Los Angeles. It begs to be the subject of poetry.
A couple of years ago, during a break in a rainstorm, I went out to the river to get some air and clear my head. I spotted the dress. It was floral print on a black background. The current brought the dress to life like a puppet, and this surreal image became the inspiration for “River City Angel.”
Photo Excerpt from “River City Angel”:
Carl Robinette 
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