Jury Duty in L.A.-L.A. Land

You get up , take the train downtown.

It's only twenty miles

but it would take you over an hour

and then drive you insane to find parking.

Maybe you stop at Union Station

and Grab Coffee & a Bagel

before hoofing it down two blocks to

The Courthouse.

Coming out of the elevator

you run smack dab into

a small crazy man named Phil Spector

and then as you walk down the hall

you pass Chris Brown...

You are on your way thru one of two metal detector stations

where you are at this point on auto pilot

as you remove your belt , raise your arms and turn around

all in one smooth dance movement.

You are one of forty five people waiting to be interviewed by the judge

and on the first day, wait thru thirty of these

Tears and Desperate Performances

Until They Begin To

Bore you

As one more person explains why

they cannot possibly serve

on this case.


You look up at the ceiling and at the walls

Of the Old Courthouse

Feeling all of the broken energy.

Heavy weight of folks all around

With their problems and anxieties.

Years of it must have seeped in to the core of this building

and no space clearing act of any kind

could probably ever

remove the ghost of events that have taken place here.

The jail is one floor beneath you.

The prisoner is chained across the room from you.

It's not a civil case.

It's bigger than that.

It will be weighty and real.

Not like sitting at home with Law & Order

Figuring out the clues as the script dictates them to you.

No, this is going to be Gritty Business

and No One Wants To be in on it.


Your girlfriend picks you up at the train station that evening.

Finds you holding out a bag of tacos you grabbed to share for dinner

and you are tired

and quiet.


You find that

The taxes you still need to finish working on

and the termites you discovered a few days ago

that are eating up the kitchen even now...

and those annoying squeaky brakes that developed on your car

These Are All

Nice Easy Problems to Arrive Home to.