Washington Street (P.O.O. #2)

The Psychogeography of Old Oakland #2

The Flaneur walks on the occasionally wild side of a truncated street. As always, sturdy shoes are recommended.

1.

Washington Street by Night

 This is Washington street where it begins

the old Swan's marketplace

 

 It's a part of the City

where darkness can fall rather quickly

out of nowhere

 In its brief passage Winter sunlight elongates the dusk

Chinese bric-a-brac jumble shop

never seems to be open for business,

in sepia gloom existence itself seems frangible

 It's often a puzzling place,
perhaps even a transporting place

Entirely in the mind of the beholder

When days are the shortest

Kris Kringle appears

hand-carved hand-painted

 

 Some see Buddha's skull 

in the window of the old Bodhisattva Club

 Come as you are, 

as you were, as you want me to be

 You may need those reading glasses
 with headlights on them

After midnight

 civilization's maze-work

always a bit haunted

 The Rooster awaits the morning people,
as the children of the night evanesce

In the shadows of the control towers,

  tonight we shoot out the cameras

December 2013- 2014

 2.

Washington Street in the Sober Light of Day

 Summer 2013