Smoking Oakland: Uptown Tinderbox

Uptown Interzone

Five apartment buildings under construction

suspiciously burned-down recently

Class War commences

when anti-gentrification natives

 bite back

It's called God's Gym

It's right next door

to the macabre

Accordion shop

It is designed to turn

African-American men

into brawny super heroes

Gospel Demi-gods

Inclining  downhill

direction,

Archway suggesting a swanky

Automobile world

of the deco past

Note engraved wall text

A funky arts center

the way Oakland has long been

somewhat humble

somewhat for the people

Knew someone who had

 a creative growth

but it was benign

Handmade lupine head

Can the wolf survive?

Mutant cats

can of course

fend for themselves

Oh-oh, it's made out of wood

the vicinity of a massive fire

this week past,

Under construction

probably arson

I happened past that day

when it was burning,

Bulbous police in intersections

Stopped in the Cathedral where

Red Cross volunteers had set up

the whole neighbor was evacuated

there was pronounced peril from

a giant roasted crane

I didn't linger long

at lake Merritt

noxious wood smoke

blew in from the near North

harshing my mellow

Like the residents of Iceland

most inhabitants of this part of Oakland

believe in the existence of elves

 Street art attached

to Telephone ball

So one tries to be philosophical

it's only castles burning

But then there is a huge

wooden superstructure

within a foot of my residence

I face my fate

whatever it may be

fearlessly,

and have long ago

made friends with the good people,

the fairy folk of the land

2017