Oakland This Week

A Flaneurian newsreel of the prevailing Oakland zeitgeist.

1.

Downtown After Dark

 Huge plate glass windows cracked during December's riots, 

Many on Broadway still boarded-up, 

One bank has permanent looking wood,

Will downtown finally turn into a bunker?

 Inescapable sensation of slipping into darkness,

A cynical self-fulfilling prophecy

Might have been avoided

Everybody knows what's coming

 Read the primitive writing on the wall

 2. 

Oakland Represent

 Lake Merritt as a caninocracy

 Pelicans enjoy leisure time in a boat,

Some middle-school-age kids were smoking cannabis

It was 2PM on a school day,

One said, hello, sir, they were nice boys

This mural suggests an idealized Mountain View cemetery

Without all the graves or anything sad,

Maybe a nice private home, would that be wrong?

That dog's has a jaw like Ridley Scott's Alien

 2.

Another Winter Sunset

 Many may have wondered if the end of The Secret of the Sea 

Forebodes no more maritime photos from Ray Man?

 Fat chance of that 

I cover the waterfront

This police boat raced up and glided in,
I took a photo but the light was wrong
Hint of paranoia as the two burly cops walked past me, 

It says "Raymarine" on top

 Here comes the ferry 

 An aquatic sunset a short walk from home,

Compensates for much

Meeting on the water

28 January 2015