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
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
