Summer High Tide

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solitude includes the great outdoors
and its various populations

 There is no avoiding this conclusion

There is in fact no conclusion

 

 

 

 

 

 

When in doubt I go to the beach

 

 

Always good for vicarious thrills

 

 

 

 Windy hazy day

mild temperatures underneath

 

 

 Wings

 

 

 

 Flight departure

 

 

I'll hold down the fort

 

 

 

The surf shop is hopping 

whatever way the wind blows

 

 

 

Lots of happy faces

 

 

 

 

 

Outdoor shower

 

 

 

The swift

Incredibly swift

 

 

Hydro-planing above the water 

I can't imagine how they stay planted on the board

 

 

 

 

 

Nonchalant pelicans fly over

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Inevitably the wind moves me down the beach

 

 

 

 I found a picnic table in a fairly calm spot

for my plant-based lunch:

Hummus, sprouted wheat bread, salad greens

and my bespoke dried fruit medley

 

 

 

 

Came right down to the shore afterwards 

as the high tide rolled up

This end of the beach is much less windy

lying in the sand one is unaffected by it

 

 

 

 

 

Mom watches over 

a close-knit Muslim family I deduce

The adult women remained modestly dressed at the beach

 

The water is warm

The Bay is rather shallow here

on the South side of Alameda island

  

 

 

 He wasn't going near the water

Dogs are not allowed on the beach

It's a bird sanctuary 

but people are reliably lawless

and self-indulgent

 

 

A circus of flying acrobats

Sometimes flying inches above the wavelets

I was revived by another wave of Cannabis 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did I mention there was a lot of pelicans?

 

 

 

More by far than I had ever seen here

 

 

 

 

As if it was The Day of the Pelicans

 

 

I stayed until nearly full high tide
which occurred at 5:41 pm

 

Hop-frogged out of there

to Webster street

 

Monumental pillars 

of Mushroomland

A happy place for all who visit it

 

 

 Mycophilia

 

When I got home 

not so faraway 

reached quickly by water

I slipped into a twilight sleep

Rolled over and dived 

to the depths of it

17 August 2021

Birthday Bay Crossing II: On the Waterfront

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The distance I came

from alien San Francisco

 

 

 

Taking flight on the water  

Steam boat nostalgia
Progress marches on

The Ohlone got the shaft

 

Bringing commodity culture

 

 

Way out on the water

Hot at first but that fateful finger of fog

approaches with refrigerating certainty 

As certain as gulls follow the fishermen

 

 

 

 

Almost under the bridge again

 

 

 

 

 Down here with the pelicans

near Treasure Island, a man-made adjunct

to primordial Yerba Buena

 

And I'm up there with the pelicans

 

 

As wonderful as a kid

spinning on a swivel seat

with a push from a little sister

 

 

 

True to one's nature

for a moment for ever

Relieved of its load a large ship

sails out to sea again

 

 

 Ferry traffic abounds

The Ferry Building clock chimes the half-hours

 In no time it is time for me

to ride out on the boat I rode in on

 

 

 

 

 

The expansive Bay calls

Back the way we came

to disembark again

Part III

Return to the Port

will soon follow

28 July 2021

Hot Spell Goes into Labor Day

A strange light tints the

sky as clouds move in mitigating

the atmospheric temperatures

the shore on a day without

bright sunshine

Alameda bound

100 years of banking

 A classy joint

no doubt

 Got a big Prince

fancy dress party coming up

So dig out your glad rags

from your psychedelic storage space

This boots are made for walking

 Let's

Familiar crowd

The tide is high

quite high

 The submarine walkway

is really underwater

today

I want to be on the same page

For the first time

I have to quit my attempt

to make it all the way,

If I was nude or wearing a suit

it would have been mine,

my pants are only rolled up so high

and I have to walk backward on tip toes

to avoid getting wet

which I somehow manage to do

Pieces on a chessboard

Hope I'm not letting

anyone down

but I'm throwing in the towel

After my usual marine lunch

at a picnic table,

sweet cold drops of rain

 I sheltered under a thick pine

it was splendid really

after all the heat and glare

Deserted state building
in Summer






What could be more patriotic

than a discarded can of Bud?

 

But they changed the name

to America, a subtle pitch:

US AMERICA

And they added a quote from

Woody Guthrie's

This Land Is Your Land

to their corporate product label

Irony is thick this labor day

Industrial sculpture garden

near crab cove

A crucial workplace

no labor in force

we salute them today

Used to look over at

the soft serve ice cream place

now gone

 The cool low-rent pads of

the twentieth century

are going going gone

The Third Dimension

in situ

Touch me not

Pussy willow

Always thirsty

Got that

silent Brexit

grin on his face

This is a town

that wets its whistle

Ye olde ale hole

in sidewalk

One's last forlorn

99 cents store

Don't take any

 wooden nickels

A flag for every pole

This country has its panties

in a tangle

Secrets in its attic

skeletons in its closet

Some mild sun

toward the end of day

Much was written in the sky


Starting to get dark
earlier

Son it will be time

for Trick-or-Treat

4 September 2017