Looking for Ivory

So you’re looking for Ivory again.

You go downtown to the clubs and the bars

Where the music spills out into the night

And the goths and the artists and

The pretty people from the foothills

Sip wine at sidewalk tables.

But she’s not there.

Beyond the glitter and the glamour

The streets are dark and silent

But just in case, you dive in:

Past dead stores with barred up windows

Past the sour doorways

Clogged with needles, empty shorts and Big Mac wraps.

But she’s not there.

So you just keep walking.

Down to the barrio to a place you know

Where deals are done and death comes calling.

You knock the way they taught you

On a black door that has no name.

Little Pete cracks it open with a pistol at the ready

And you catch your breath a little

But he nods and lets you in.

With sirens slicing through the night

And warm cerveza on the table

Little Pete tells you what he knows.

“Same as before,” he says.

“Same as always. Last night

She put up her hair and did the makeup

Slid like sweet cream into that shiny red dress.

She’s got those new shoes on

Red ones with no toes and roses on the tops,

And the little black bag with all the sequins.

So lookin like a queen in the moonlight

She walked down these stairs

To a long white car just waitin at the curb.

Never seen him before but I know his kind:

Long white dude in a tailored suit

Gold on his fingers

Powder in his pocket

Money to burn and more besides.

Ivory went out like those other nights

But she never came back with the dawn.”

So you go down again to all those places

Where strange things happen in the dark.

One more time along Spring Street

When the night’s just a memory

And secrets flee like roaches in the sun.

She must be here.

You think you see her in the neon

And you think you see her in the light

That runs like oil on the rain slicked alleyway

Behind the place they call the Caper Club.

When you come to the dead end

Where the dumpsters stand against cracked brick

And the asphalt smells like beer and vomit

You see one red shoe with the rose on top.

Come a little closer, then

You’ll see Ivory lying all in red

Without her red dress on.

Behind the Scenes:

This is another little story-poem inspired by the gritty streets of downtown Los Angeles, and what goes on in the dark. You might recognize echoes of this story in my other pieces "Queen Jane" and "At Mama Silva's" too.