Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Three poems from Mouth & Fruit

Chryss Yost

La Jolla Boys

  • We sit here on the pier and think
  • That, someday, we will drink.
  • We tip our Pepsi toward the sun
  • It’s vintage 1981.
  • Still too young for real fun
  • And rich La Jolla Boys.
  • Me and Jenny planning through
  • Our string bikini beach debut
  • But haven’t got a thing to flaunt
  • Against this sea of debutantes
  • Their fishing lines already taut
  • With rich La Jolla Boys.
  • As strong as Crystal Pier is long
  • And eyes Pacific blue,
  • We’ve waited more than fifteen years
  • To meet men just like you.
  • We practice doing runway walks
  • And suck on popsicles like cocks
  • And build sand castles as we talk
  • Of rich La Jolla Boys.

Cocktails

  • I sit on your patio, alone,
  • my empty glass as heavy as a gun,
  • my satin straps and clasps not yet undone.
  • Each guest shines with candlelight and wine
  • poised before the window, drink in hand,
  • balanced on your perfect baritone.
  • This empty glass is just a timing gun:
  • a heavy heart, all steel and no shot,
  • that announces the anticipated start,
  • says it’s time, at last, to run,
  • and takes the blame for blasting it apart.

Descanso, California

  • The rich, black humus, airborne, glimmers gold,
  • gray granite boulders softly wrapped in moss
  • beneath the dusty light of oaks as old
  • as California.
  • Creeks just right to cross
  • with one wide leap and lined with cottonwood,
  • river stone chimneys, an abandoned bridge
  • which finally lost its lumber in the flood.
  • Manzanitas, red beneath the ridge,
  • the muted clop of horses down the street
  • melts the whispering rasp of raking leaves
  • filtered slowly through the mountain heat
  • beneath the stellar blue of make-believes:
  • The slumber of Descanso’s summer spell
  • wrapped in a heritage of chaparral.

Chryss Yost, a San Diego native, graduated from University City High three decades ago. She served as Santa Barbara’s Poet Laureate from 2013–2015. She has edited several anthologies and is the founding editor of the Shoreline Voices Project from Gunpowder Press. Mouth & Fruit is her first full-length collection of poems.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Centennial Salute to San Diego’s Military, East Village Block Party, Birding Basics Class

Events March 29-March 30, 2024
Next Article

Seals hook up with Beaver

Salty’s Escape is a Mexican-Style cerveza brewed with corn and puffed Jasmine rice
Chryss Yost

La Jolla Boys

  • We sit here on the pier and think
  • That, someday, we will drink.
  • We tip our Pepsi toward the sun
  • It’s vintage 1981.
  • Still too young for real fun
  • And rich La Jolla Boys.
  • Me and Jenny planning through
  • Our string bikini beach debut
  • But haven’t got a thing to flaunt
  • Against this sea of debutantes
  • Their fishing lines already taut
  • With rich La Jolla Boys.
  • As strong as Crystal Pier is long
  • And eyes Pacific blue,
  • We’ve waited more than fifteen years
  • To meet men just like you.
  • We practice doing runway walks
  • And suck on popsicles like cocks
  • And build sand castles as we talk
  • Of rich La Jolla Boys.

Cocktails

  • I sit on your patio, alone,
  • my empty glass as heavy as a gun,
  • my satin straps and clasps not yet undone.
  • Each guest shines with candlelight and wine
  • poised before the window, drink in hand,
  • balanced on your perfect baritone.
  • This empty glass is just a timing gun:
  • a heavy heart, all steel and no shot,
  • that announces the anticipated start,
  • says it’s time, at last, to run,
  • and takes the blame for blasting it apart.

Descanso, California

  • The rich, black humus, airborne, glimmers gold,
  • gray granite boulders softly wrapped in moss
  • beneath the dusty light of oaks as old
  • as California.
  • Creeks just right to cross
  • with one wide leap and lined with cottonwood,
  • river stone chimneys, an abandoned bridge
  • which finally lost its lumber in the flood.
  • Manzanitas, red beneath the ridge,
  • the muted clop of horses down the street
  • melts the whispering rasp of raking leaves
  • filtered slowly through the mountain heat
  • beneath the stellar blue of make-believes:
  • The slumber of Descanso’s summer spell
  • wrapped in a heritage of chaparral.

Chryss Yost, a San Diego native, graduated from University City High three decades ago. She served as Santa Barbara’s Poet Laureate from 2013–2015. She has edited several anthologies and is the founding editor of the Shoreline Voices Project from Gunpowder Press. Mouth & Fruit is her first full-length collection of poems.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

March is typically windy, Sage scents in the foothills

Butterflies may cross the county
Next Article

Melissa Etheridge, The Imaginary Amazon

Events April 1-April 3, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.