Saturday, July 9, 2016

The Week in Oakland: Thursday's Big Demo










Ominous vehicle
 parked across the street
I greet the world outside




People from elsewhere would not believe how cold
a morning n July can be hereabouts
Bigger day than expected lie ahead





1.



On my way to Berkeley
Guy on BART
face buried in three bouquets 
like his battery was turned off




Home ward drive-by


What's with the huge
 paintings of dead babies
Does have to do with 
the wall we're going to build?






Dry garden center
apropos
a former gas station


A park I forget its name

Whacky little former
cake shop gallery



Street-walking manikins 
African import shop




Here comes the new mural
trying to trump 
the relentless graffiti
taggarts






Same muralist that did
 Leo's on Telegraph,
pleasant enough



Matches the serpentine tiles,
Let's see if it
does the trick




Oakland is not in the mood
for more repression, OK?



Thrash metal epiphany
Old white lady
high forever





I'm reading Monsignor Quixote
by Graham Greene
Checking m books of chivalry
Swearing an oath




Taking my Vows
seriously





2.



Wake from a nap
after-supper 
 The district has guests tonight
It seems




Helicopters are with us




There they are now


They are here to take the highway
to let the police know
 that they are not happy






Nothing a chopper can do
but fly around and around
in circles


An unstoppable will
two thousand strong


The scene settles down
Almost a like a bucolic festival
No traffic on Broadway
No cars may pass
 on the highway overpass




As darkess fell
the helicopter persisted
like a noisome flying insect







Finally reverting
to its larval state



A feeling of peace and accomplishment fell over the neighborhood.

All night until well after midnight, I watched dancing silhouettes of young legs in skinny jeans
as they came and went on the exit ramp, sometimes a bike or a skateboard.
I felt a warm welcome for them and would have gone out to see the spectacle in reverse, but the cold weather had left me with the mule-kick sneezes of an on-coming cold






7 July 2016

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