Drive-by Telegraph Fast

Telegraph Avenue

Oakland to Berkeley

Glimpses of a world outside

flying by

Here was Don's old place of longstanding

Don Joyce who passed away 

one year ago

The crazy murals

were fairly recent
The trending Temescal

I'd like to see this place

from the inside

its odd illumination

Hanging onto

the charm of old California 

a gone way of life

Tattoo parlor

for the young

and the risky

First attempt

at shooting

the tattoo parlor

This was called Mama Bears forever

a bookshop events cafe 

for women

My old neighborhood

of twenty years

1984-2004

Shades shop thrives

While the shady old pawn shop

gives up the ghost

of unobtainable dollars

Holding out for

an anachronistic

way of life

Alas

Rents went insane

Woolsey street my old corner
Didn't eat here,
The Berkeley/Oakland border
runs right through it,
Where the keystone cops used to stop
the protest marches back in the day,
Heard the zany stories
 at the nearby Lutheran polling place
where I helped get out the vote

Spring 2016