Ray's May Day Weekend

May Day may seem
somewhat licentious

in Berkeley

1.

Another everyday Yantra

heading into Berkeley

on a day of helicoptering

police tension

 Church on Shattuck

varnished and refurbished

What's liberty when

one class starves another?

What chance have we

when Sotheby's is the seller?

Across from the neighborhood

formerly known

for Dorsey's Fish-locker

Flint's smoking ,

Longhaul anarchist drop-in

and the Homeless Action Center

Alt-Right Pricks Attack Berkeley

No worry

that large insect in sky

is a police helicopter
over the disorder
taking place in a park nearby,

Disgraced ex-cops

Vets on meth from Missouri

and other "First Defenders"

are again inciting violence

Fighting words touted as free speech

I joked with a guy my age

"Why don't they stay

in their own hometowns,

they can wave the flag

and say how much

they love Trump"

An alt-rightist nearby replied

"because there are no borders on free speech"

I said I saw the photos of the piles

of weapons you all brought"

The Famers Market was

cancelled because

everyone knew you were

 bringing political violence

Locals  were stuck with he bill

the farmers were stuck

with their loss,

I may have accused him of being

an uneducated fascist

to my own personal regret

Irish temper

I walked through and chastised

some of the overtime pay cops

but I otherwise ignored them

Times are grim  enough

without trouble-makers showing up

to make matters worse

Old Berkeley

antlers and a symbol

of the old rugged cross

Let's lighten up

and love one another

while we can

2.

Telegraph

Anniversary of

the Summer of Love

Getting his freak on

dressing for the Telegraph Avenue

50th Anniversary of the Summer of Love
White is the new black
look at that angel fur
and it's as soft as your old granny's



Combining beatnik, hippie, punk,
grunge and 21st Century geezer
My Chinese robe was hallucinatory

Had a perfect storm

of extra expenses this month

Insomnia after running out of herb,

Laugh if you want but this contraption

nets six joints, four cannabis caramels,

big secular cookie and a few greenbacks,

I was soon delighted to fold up

and dig the best Country Joe set

since I saw him with the original Fish 

Three ace guitarists to play
and a spunky drummer

on a great sound system

Electric Music

for the Mind and Body

one of the greatest LPs

of the Summer of Love
I blew copious smoke as Joe sang
"hey partner,
won't you pass that reefer round"








May God Bless
Country Joe MacDonald
and the Fish

Listening to the Fish
50 years ago at Monterey Pop

3.

Walpurgis Nacht

Hot weather has actually

started to happen

so I'm out after supper

walking down to the Port

2017 Corvette parked outside my pad

Warm weather mania

and displays of luxury

consumption

A Coheeba cigar from Habana

Not the first time I've seen

them barely-smoked

 and discarded,

People like the look

choke on the smoke

Into my customary solitude

Biker gang on regular bikes,

new Bohemians I guess

Even have denim jackets

with official "colors"

More showed up

they all had a beverage

then they all swept off

   Emma in sky

at sundown

Guess it's

War all the time

All over again

Never going to Smurf city again?

Smurfs come to Oakland,

in paranoiac posters

I left here and went over to Oakland Metro

to inspect their Gothic demonic posters

Only to have a young Hispanic maniac

start yelling down the street

maybe not at me

and holding up his arms with

middle-fingers extended

But young very angry

and twenty pounds on me,

he was not someone I wished

to occupy a side street with,

It was like he was yelling

at some who drove away

or maybe just the world,

I walked calmly back to Washington

he turned down toward

Jack London cinema,

Just be one more person buggin'

30 April 2017

3.

May Day

The play's the thing

Poofters taunting a bear with feathers


There's the bear now

 

There's the ring-leader
an odd fellow indeed

Some sort of Anglo-Saxon

fertility rites I suppose

And where was this theatre located?

This reenactment of halcyon Albion?

Shall Actors be the lap dogs

of commerce?

Me thinks

he twirleth his mustache at me

what cheek!

So down to the dispensary
to replenish
then along Dana street

Gut feeling

at First Congregational

Only to come back more sturdy

Speaking of the skeletal...

Saw a familiar face on campus

fortunately he didn't see me

Cyber-fossil

cryptozoa frozen in stone

Down to the shady creek-side

to rolleth a smoke

Struggle relents

an isle of peace

Today's blessing takes the form

of Midnight Indica

blended with an astronomical

AK-47 Sativa

Epiphanic greensward

Long grass in May

how it heals the soul

Onward down through campus

and into town

May Day march

immigration folks in red

outnumbered by police

The long arms of the law

I smell sex and candy,

only I remember that song

modesty prevents them

from pulling the tights

up snug on the booty

Hope that bear

doesn't hear I was looking for him

and come looking for me

tonight when I'm asleep

April-May 2017