Mission Street San Francisco

 

 

Theater of the Absurd

(see below)

Rip Van Winkle effect

Ghost of nearly 40 years flicker like shrapnel

Dissolve in bright sunlit facts on the ground

An extraordinary hour spent on Mission

When I first came here the district

was certainly dilapidated

despite widespread covert gentrification

it functions as a somewhat lower level

 of the general inferno

 

 

 

Still a main thoroughfare

densely populous

ruins and bunkers

thriving shops and diners

 

The great trees of the Mission

will survive us all

 

 

Always busy, always watchful

many street people... some long gone

mission street accommodates

the down and out

 

 

Edible cactus

on order

 

A traditional way of life

to outlast fashion

fresh fruit and pinatas

 

Mariachis

serenade an eatery

 

Forever a very musical

part of town

Instruments for sale or rent

Lot of ukes on offer

 

 

Holy finger food

Mississippi steel body ukulele

Bet it rocks

 

Hollywood bling

as worn by Deano

and James Brown

 

Simple straight forward solutions

to life's many entanglements

 

 

Others prefer a more circuitous route

at the superstition herb store

hexes, love potions, sacred potpourri

 

Phantasmagoria of murals

 

 

Some verging on art

 

Threshold of cartoon world 

ZAP comics

 

 

 

Carlos it's-all-too-much Santana

 

A realm of lurid nightmarish visions

and paroxysmal graffiti

 

Beats me

Someone very beloved

or very feared perhaps

 

Tacqueria mural

La Madre

 

 

Cool young Mission girl

didn't mind me invading

her privacy I guessed

 

 

I  dig all the little shops

as they cavalcade past

on the fly

 

Smoke shops abound

  legal now baby

Mota para trabajo

 

I'm with the fellaheen

love the deep colors

intense floral patterns,

Reminds me of Oaxaca

 

 

 

The fruitarian Summertime

 

I leave the gold metallic insignia

to the young and flamboyant

 A twilight zone with strange talisman

antiquated manikins uncanny effigies

 

If the hat don't fit

you must acquit

Wear and tear

to mustache and sideboards

inevitable

 

Choose your illusion

as the cliché goes

 

 

Thought I saw someone I knew

 

Only a replica

of feminist Rebecca

 

Thrift store with

colorful ethnic clothing

 

Available for cultural appropriation

by fair bonnie hippie college girls

(or boys)

 

This manikin has more presence

than perhaps one ought to have

 

 

Let's not beat around the bush--

Hookers

 

 

I'm on a sub-mission myself

of a strange mean's clothes-shopping

 

 

Legendary men's wear store

seen the ads for decades in the

alternate free weeklies

 

Reputed to have a great selection

of jeans and flannel shirts

Tough outdoor wear

 

 

Wow

Tons of slinky low-rider gear

Mexican rodeo finery, Zoot suits

many zany tableaux,

 

I didn't want to give the wrong impression

but I couldn't help but chuckle

So I forewent a lot of tempting shots

I was flagging a bit by now

and  I wanted see the flannel shirts

 

 

And because their heart

was in the right spot

 

Adios Siegel's

I may return someday,

all depends on the cosmic flux

 

 

This was the most perplexing sight

on my tour

 

The formerly grand

El Capitan theatre

  

 

I functional building

it retains it's marquee

But when I walked past

it was no longer there

 Disorienting murals

covered a void

They gutted the lobby

for a driveway and

 the theatre for a parking lot

 

I felt dizzy and didn't shoot any

close-ups

Didn't fully understand until

I consulted Wikipedia last night

 

 

 

I had entered a

world of symbols

 

 

 

Appliques

a monstrous cell phone

 meaningless semiotics

 

 

Haunted as I am

by the over-hopping

of craft beer

 

 

I bid a fond

yet hasty hasta luego

to  legendary Mission street

 

 

19 July 2018