Issue: Issue Summer 2006

Poem: 24-Hour Shine

24-Hour Shine © Poet-broker Developers are tinkering with a tinsel town toolkit chiseling clues from foundations of urban places, they’ve tightened up synergy in boulevard spaces, and smoothed diverse urban energies into grooves. The past is preserved in Egyptian and Pantages restorations the future is foreshadowed on the rails of three transit stations at night workers race to bars over walk of fame pavement then throw off their shoes in lofts above the rail tubes. The barely lit sun shines on reborn deco buildings where youth rests before stumbling past steamy cafés up to loft offices or down Hollywood and Vine escalators to catch red neon Metro to downtown or San Fernando gigs, looking back above them at glass towers where elevators mix women in nurses whites with sisters in St. John knits. Ed Rosenthal is “poet-broker” and is also a historic properties specialist for CB Richard Ellis in downtown Los Angeles, where he is senior vice president of investments. He can be reached at Poet-broker@comcast.net