Jessica Abughattas’s “Beautiful Altadena”

In the wake of January’s devastating fires around Los Angeles, LARB presents a new poem from Jessica Abughattas.

By Jessica AbughattasFebruary 24, 2025

• LARB Lit

• Poetry

THE POET JESSICA ABUGHATTAS was displaced from her Altadena home in the Eaton Fire last month. This evening, the Los Angeles Review of Books will be hosting a fundraiser for the Pasadena Community Job Center, an organization whose immediate response made them a community hub during the fires and whose consistent, continued support keeps them on the front lines of the wildfire response. Please consider donating to the fund and providing aid to the many people still in need.

¤

JESSICA ABUGHATTAS

Beautiful Altadena

This is the most blessed time in my life.

I stay awake until the witching hour

under curfew and occupation

by the National Guard, who wield rifles

longer than my legs. I marry this May.

Poppy fields meant to bloom.

Cosmos and nasturtium want to blanket

the ashen land. Never seen the mountain

so brown, laid bare and yellow, a soft

bellied cat. Mountain lion lying

dead in the road. I taste metal, rub my eyes.

Here’s my identification, officer.

I was born in that house over there.

My love’s a martyr. Here’s a picture.

Who needs sleep? The clear blue morning?

If only you would stop being so damn beautiful,

I could try and forget you. The jade bushes,

the little star white flowers on them. The warm light

on the porches in the early evening.

¤

Featured image: Lake Avenue Altadena is licensed under CC0 1.0. Image has been cropped.