Artificial Paradise

“There is a boy across the river Whose cheeks are like peaches Alas, I cannot swim”
–Sappho 600 BC

s I type this, it’s 2:00pm in northeast Los Angeles, middle of the afternoon: the sky is brown with smoke, air conditioners are walking off the job, and last night I could barely breathe. Yesterday, it was 113 degrees in parts of northeast LA;