Out of Our Gourds in Oakland - Berkeley

Nature's cranium replica

roll-up for the big roll-out

It's pumpkin pie time

Mama Zucca welcome all

to Old Oakland

to begin our survey today

It's a Friday and the farmers market

is in full swing

Smart and Final

is in on the act as well

into the seasonal spirit

of change

A fond birch tree

falls to firwood

Playing perhaps on

intergenerational fear

WOODSHOCK

indeed

The humble yet noble

talisman of Autumn

Berkeley Bowl

has assorted squash

for the connoiseur

Edible or

decorative

they have it covered

Turbins

gourds to fit

every gourd

I always regarded her

as a fairly frightening

actress

Morning glory

I'm copping coffee and

heading onward for herb and

victual restoration

The turn of October

arrived a few days early

Everything's groovy

warts and all

Scarecrows

are the haunted heroes

of All Hallow's Eve

These are otherwordly

She's a little

out of my league

Eye candyland

Drive-by Epilogue

For many years there was

a charming pumpkin patch

on this near corner

They are lot Xmas tree lots

with bales of hay

and a selection of pumpkins

assorted gourds Indian corn

and scarecrows

Sometimes they include

scarier characters for

Hallowe'en,

Here in the watershed

near Mountain View's

expansive hillside cemetery

the Florist continues the tradition

and longtime residents feel

an atavistic homing instinct

to return here for celebratory pumpkins

Whole Foods Addendum

September 2017

Knocking Around My Neighborhood

A sinister visionary somewhat

sinister elderly Mr Rogers type

see in the vicinity

Will they ever tire of dragons?

Dementia in

7th street parking lot

Jack London urinated here

Old wood,

that's what she said

Some sort of Food festival

had been here and gone

not a hard sell

in omnivorous Oakland

Looks like they are

selling advertising

 Who doesn't like sauerkraut?

Actually used to cook

 pork chops in it

then toss out the kraut

Then suddenly

if a bust can be sudden

Outside the former

Museum of Capitalism

Has Elvis come back to the building?

A bloated Nixon?

The horrifying nostrils

WTF?

How ham-handedly

the wrong thing to do here

a bi ugly obtrusive bust

of an obscure businessman

of Euro descent

Over to the water

to break it all down

Nice refraction action

 Look away musing a while

and when I look back

this monster has popped up,

No not the Transbay building

the massive freighter in the midst

The baffling feat of turning a ship

with inches to spare

Old Time Nova Con

Hey now!

I was still feeling groovy the next day

so I set out for Ohlone Park

where an Old Time afternoon jam

was going go down

Into the BART matrix

Comes to a stop

at North Berkeley Bart

and continuing by foot

 But I'm not seeing

 anything under way

No boxes being squeezed

so to speak

Shit I'm early

no music yet

 Just a radical

purple truck, y'all

 Looks like a real party

 I know it looks more indigo

in this filter-tweaked shot

Ohlone Park on a hot day

quite familiar to me

 I lived on McGee street

I should have gone

to Mexican wrestling instead

No this truck was really purple

I was hoping not to upset

its occupants

It's hot and the jam

is slow to start

I've got a radio show

called Panhandle Country

to dig at home

So an escape route calls

A quiet and contented evening

followed

Excellent pasta and ganja

no booze this week

stay happy anyway

24 September 2017