Drive-by 18

Through the stout heart of Oakland

via Martin Luther King, Jr Way

1.

Coming Home

 

Some man's castle

 protecting fence and dog

Next a moat

A palimpsest of graffiti

A gloomy gloaming in Spring

A ghost town welcome

Greyhound Bus Station where

Allen Ginsberg worked in the 1950s,

"Baggage Room at Greyhound" was

 included in HOWL & Other Poems

Today it's an environment

of total surveillance,

Cameras, microphones,

gunshot detectors

Cannabis helps everyone

Grin and bear it

 2.

You're running
You're running
You're running Away

Interesting looking lady

wonder if she's African

 We're waiting for buses

at the transit hub

 Her cowl holds her smart tablet

no hands needed

Here's my ride

the #18 bus

Another colorful lady
gets on board

 She twigged
I was taking a shot but

doesn't seem to mind

Automobiles

uber alles

Unusual puddles

We had a flash shower

this April morning

Semi-liberated zone

Marcus Books

Black struggle

specialists

Near MacArthur BART station

Human storage units

renting soon

Advertisement for The Jungle Book

on the side of the bus

April 2016

Peace Talk

 Mazel tov

 To Avigador Lieberman,
former Moldovian
nightclub bouncer,

new Defense Minister

of our most important ally 

in the Middle East

Neo Berkeley

 

 'LECTRIC
WASHOUSE

for the mind and body,

 Heading into town

An astrological forecast suggested I keep the hell I know

rather than try for the heaven I don't know

 Berkeley where travellers

with guitars arrive daily

even today

 UC steadily transforms

into a vast cash register

of student debt

 Stadium

Events there this weekend

baking in the sun

Yet another Buddhist gallery

Reflecting opulence and

perhaps subtle hegemony

 Glad I have ear plugs

In my ignorant opinion

Chinese have no conception

of music

 Some things Chinese people

 understand exceptionally well

 Surfacing

 

 New campus sports field

Almost too nice to trod on

Berkeley Tool Library

Bird Neighbors

24, 26 May 2016

Flower Walking in the Maytime

 Outside Fairyland

It's gray and chilly on the Bay today

like the blossoms themselves

Sunday's meditations stored up some sunshine

 A child's garden

 Everyday wonders to behold

 Bowling Green

 The old men have been

 lawn-bowling here

for a long long time

 It shows in the whorls

and lines of their faces

 The inevitable toll

of time and the weather

 It shows in lines

of grim determination

May

Skill and perhaps wisdom accrue

no matter what you do

 Azalea Bonzai

show

 Characterized by blossoms

of different color

on the same stunted tree

 Striking white lobe

of fleshy blossoms

This one as ordered

and ceremonial

as a wedding cake

 Approximate colors

are all I can capture

under florescent lights

This one's hues

come close to actuality

 Still beautiful

if only a portion

 They had tea and Japanese crackers

Providing a nice buzz for this busy bee

to continue on his way

 Garden 

Color Quest

Electric magenta

 Red and blue,

A guy slowly twirling

S-shaped blades 

under dramatic clouds

as his girlfriend filmed him

 Green myriad

 Purple blossom

Yellow sunburst

to say good-bye

22 May 2016