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Claude Lorrain is Painting Los Angeles

Jim Krusoe 
Claude Lorrain is painting Los Angeles.
He paints the grass asparagus green.
Downtown a peachy pink. Already it looks better.
He paints bumps on the freeways to look
Like cobblestones. The parking lots
Are all bright blue. He adds
Some peasants and some cows.
"But Claude, L.A. has no cows..."
He shrugs. He's right. Cows help.
He puts rain over Tarzana,
A hurricane off Malibu, and stops for lunch.
I say, "Claude, now L.A.'s beautiful!"
He steps back to look.
He tears it up.
"Jimmy, mon choux, you know that's not
what art's supposed to do."
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