Space Odyssey To Berkeley

 

 

 

 

Lovely Sunday not too warm. 

I've been longing for a skyward trip.
Bound for Tilden Park in the high hills of Berkeley
First the launch by Sunday BART train where I face a 22 minute wait 

in the subterranean station with new ad screens

1.

Moon Man 

in Transit

 

 

Looking a little anxious 

 

 

 

Waiting for the man

 

 

 

 

 

The Candy Man

 

 

 

 He high now

 

 

 

 

 

 

Space mission accomplished

 

 

 

 

Don't you get stuck on the Candy Man's stick

 

 

 

 

Lollipop high

 

 

What up, dog? 

 

 

How high the Moon? 

 

 

 Imaginary objects float past in slow motion

 

 

 

All aboard!

 

 

He's got the whole world in His hands

2.

Berkeley Below the Tree Line

The symbolic realm.

Berkeley shows evidence of sporadic humanoid life forms

Yet it's still rather depopulated

In the oasis of a large empty drugstore 

the first thing that catches my attention is

the wall of coolers now all kinetic ad display screens 

The next shock of the new is more challenging

After a confusing attempt to locate the proper bus stop,

I learn at last that bus service to Tilden Park is defunct 

All the low-income people without cars in the flatlands

should just call Uber for a $40-50 ride each way

if they want to access the park I assume

Rpidly reassessing options I head for bucolic pastures 

The University of California its glades and lawns

 

 

 

Scotch thistle

touch me not

 

 

 

 

 

 The legendary Eucalyptus grove

Still survives despite its risks

and the constant drum beat for more building

 

 

 

A non-native tree it is explosively combustible

in the new landscape of burning trres

 

 

 

 They grow quite immense obviously

A carbon-based life-form

they store an enormous amount of BTUs

Good to see 

the green green grass of home

A psychological necessity of life

 

 

I heard electric guitar notes and wondered,

 was it coming out of my phone"

Then I rounded the copse and discovered

music students pleasantly jamming

But where was the iconic log bench?

An island of outdoor leizure going way way back, 

it became even more popular 

counter-cultural hang spot

 

 

Then I found it,

almost completely completely overgrown

Ferns and a small tree growing directly from its cradle

Like Dobie Gillis beneath Rodin's The Thinker

I spent many hours here in contemplation and reflection

 

 

Today's students spending time right next to it

had not a inkling of what I was talking about

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had my spliff break sitting on it

for auld time's sake

and found a ripe blackberry

to trigger the memories

I lived quite close by and came here daily 

to exercise and get high 

Once prominent the old log bench 

has all but disappeared

 

So I hung out on the lawn for an hour

refreshing on water and a medley of dried fruit,

sunning, exercising and digging the young cats play

Sort of a loungey jazz from way back when

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the good old summertime

 

 

 

Then the iconic Sather Tower clock struck four

as cool clouds took over the western sky

 

 

 

 

 

The two-man ensemble played on

but I laid tracks toward the road

 

 

 

 Down past the BAMPFA 

another institution where art for art's sake

is a notion bygone and rather quaint

Beyond it lies the forthcoming

Monster truck of a building

 

 

 

Round the clock promotion

no outdoor flicks again this year

 

There it is

Inappropriate if you ask me

Greedy interests finally overturned

keep Berkeley small ordinances

and are going hog wild ever since

 

 

 

Well Berkeley persists

its all for real

 

 

 

While I return home by BART

White man in Oakland

adapting to Armagedeon Time

surviving another day

8 August 2021