Summary

"L.A." is a short chapbook in Float comprised of a series of small poems for Laurie Anderson and her husband, Lou Reed. Yet, nowhere within the chapbook does Carson state Anderson's full name; likewise, Reed is referred to only as "Lou." L.A. therefore equally is an ambiguous signifier — an acronym that can stand for a number of things.

The chapbook begins with a poem called "Short Talk on the Withness of the Body," which is divided into three sections headed-off by Roman numerals. Section "I" is written in prose from the first person point of view; it details a speaker sitting on a train looking out a window, who notices, in the reflection, a "big red-haired man" with a big "red beard, red plaid shirt, tight barrel chest" enter the toilet and shut the door. Though the scene is odd, "Train...