Copia – a poem

Copia,
Latin root of “copy,”
    abundant
        (connotation: wealth)
Sub—
    less than
Urban.

My parents chose
    Plan 3D
        (3 stands for 3-car garage
             D for deluxe floor plan)

Watched it grow—
    skeletal pine
        stucco—
paradise of imitation
    Spain

Los Angeles River—
    cement highway
        of the Rain God—

I ride my bike
    to the beach
        (ten miles),
past Plan 3A’s,
    2B’s,
        3C’s—
    my head filled
        with brochures

the waves,
        the flat sea,
    stretching
to Urban Tokyo

[Abundant],
    miles
        and miles
of sidewalk.
    Afterthought
        of architect,

            Picture frame,
    wide
        as a hungry mouth.
Surrendered
    to the auto-less

We wander
    miles of sidewalk
        that connects
            nowhere
        to nowhere

We spend hours
    in 3-car garages—
        or 2—
    and smoke pot

While our mothers
    sit on the edge
        of couches
    in sunken living rooms,
        smoking cigarette after cigarette

© 2025 Chris Leibow — Salt Lake City artist and poet.
poetry, collage art, mixed media,
Explore more art at leibow.art.