Strolling West Oakland

Some Nut Bag

A cool dark day comes as a breathe of fresh oxygen for the Flaneur

after a few weeks of heat

 Mr Bag won't be seen here any longer,
This "Mex-acatessen" recently closed after decades,

Too boring I suppose, meanwhile

 A trendy burrito chain is denting Ronald McDonald's

 

 Pomo mash-up,

Like one building landing on another,

I think Nut Bag maybe lives here

Beauty obtrudes, 

Color and form that reach my soul,

I had a mocha hash chocolate star

with my coffee before setting out

 Sometimes a forbidding exterior,

Can fool the casual observer

 A People's garden 

All God's children can avail themselves,

Lovely shard, kale and spinach for my table

 Graffiti sketched on a ruined building

 Traces of long ago functionality

Across the street a discreet mosque,

Image of the crowd kicking it

at the Kuba in Mecca

 Society of the spectacular

Looking back in the direction I came

 BART train crosses under the highway overpass

One other lone pedestrian overwhelmed by scale,

Turned down toward the Port at this point

 When it comes to the coolest cats,

The Flaneur is off the scale

 Just ask any of the classy ladies in the vicinity

 Phone poles send smoke signals

This sticker of a discorporate tattooed hand

inspired a furtive sketch of a space alien

 The old brick buildings of America's factories

 Those metal plates will keep this whole brick shit-house

from coming down around our ears in an earthquake

 The endpoint of my expedition,

Peaceful benches on a Saturday afternoon

Industrial shed containing darkness

 A somewhat more cheery beer shed

 Yonder comes the Amtrak train,

Always seems so sudden

 Color explosions against the gray sky

 I accept full responsibility

for everything

12 September 2015