Oakland Blues

Piano abandoned

It started on the sidewalk

then began a long

slow stop-motion

animated walk

through the park

Play me the

Oakland Blues

on it

So blue

it has a patina

 So blue

the sky could fall

The birds and I

wouldn't mind

We've been expecting it

all along

Life goes on

exuberantly

until it does

 There was a city-wide strike

going on that day

We were barred

from the inner sanctum

garden plot

(photo shot through fence)

A lone gardener

watering what

cannot do without

A broad leaf

against the fence

turned the silent red

of embarrassment

 

Locked out

and in need of a rest

I sat in the grass

At this point

a gardener appeared

an insider

we exchanged salutations

A girl pulled up

on a bicycle

who had unattended plants

 she worried over

She was restricted

to outside the fence

just as I was

The garden lady

gave her scant attention

You won't see

the serious gardener

in jiggle-bottom drawers

The entire park

is of course

as once was

the entire world

Outside the park

I await transport

home

The strike didn't last long

and eventually

we'll have new level

easy-walking walkways,

And so one withdraws

having had an adventure

nevertheless

December 2018