Oakland Babylon

in progress

 

 

 

Roll up

 the dark carnival that never ends

it just moves the police tape

 

In broad daylight

in a Broadway crosswalk

 

Super sexy heroes

 

Revelers

All smiles

 

Despite the attention of a

verbalizing African American man

overenthusiastic over

the voluptuous ladies

 

 

As they sweep past 

One wearing a décolleté gown

The other a see-through body stocking

that's all behind her

Not everyone is so

extravagantly dressed

for what I think is

Comic Con 2018

Motorcycle cops underscore

 a heavy police presence

a few blocks from police headquarters

Someone may have called the cops

about Black men wearing masks

(Nice kids actually)

And there is...



A Black sports idol on every pole,
The cops are abundant
because tonight's basketball
is to be a very big game
won by the local heroes
and the party is on ninth after it

 

This guy was great

middle-aged mad scientist

but I couldn't get a 

full frontal exposure

 

 

Based I think on

odd comics or something

I admit I don't get

 

 

Queen Bee

of her peer group 

 

Next Day

Comic Con is winding

down with a private sidewalk party

Here anybody making money

can just inconvenience the public

 

 Early exits

leave you wanting more

What will you miss?

 

 

Time to cross the line

that separates us

from make-believe

 

 They'll always be next year

until there isn't

see you then

 

 Next comes

Burger Boogaloo

 

 

Hosted by John Waters

 the least repressed

the most anarchistic

Catholic saint ever was

 

 

Eldritch Punk and New Wave acts

turn up for a pogo and a hamburger

every year in Mosswood park

 

Sign on BART elevator

at Rockridge

Yes it's come to this

Talk about the truth of

Devolution

Then the elevator door opened

 

Over the incessant traffic

I manage to avoid

Mount Tamalpais hovers

over a urban copse

 

There's another one

of these dumbos

saluting the Oakland As

 

Down at Jack London Square

 

I had just seen this same truck

near my pad

figure it deserves a portrait

 

 Meanwhile it's ethnic
war all the time
Video gaming addiction
has been judged a mental illness

Nevertheless
 

Every once in a while
one may meet
an elegant lady

 

 

 

June 2016

 

 

Oakland Outsider

Street surrealist

drive-by

The Berkeley Flaneur

morphs into another avatar

the Oakland Outsider

Viewed askance

by some natives

as a stranger

who gets stranger
by the hour

1.

Wild bird attrition caused

by greedy stupid

architecture

Bird killer

façade

Obstructing the flight path

from the hills and the estuary

to the Bay

It's really just a façade too

a narrow corridor rooms

stacked up to the sky

A drastic fall off

An Escher-like maze

reflective and deadly

for avifauna

Latest casualty

I've also recovered

a hummingbird

who met then same fate

2.

Vehicular manslaughter

Scan your fingerprints

into the Matrix

A Mercedes jeep

how gaudy and absurd

One has little choice

look at Jacko

Ram tough truck

with trailer

Oakland Zoology

The Illuminaries stash

of painting supplies

City-sanctioned muralists

with execrable taste

Hunky Harley-Davidson

looks like a '58 Chevy

from the back

Smoke of the wildfires

colors the sky,

A motorized tall ship

heads out to open water

I'm about ready for

a Tequila sunrise

Theatre of cruelty

of the absurd

Insane clown president

Secretly

hope this potable water

supply will come

to someone's rescue

3.

Children's Fairyland

Exposed

The approach has been in disarray

lots of street construction

The Children's Fairyland

 Adults

accompanied by children

only

Let's see if

I can sneak inside

A book or a screen is one thing,

But the ability to sit and ride on

 Alice in Wonderland characters

Now you're talking

 a kid's language

It's a strange enough place

a patch-work quilt

of a child's imaginings

Rabbit loiters

on his day off

Closed Monday

The live oaks

in their fantastic forms

amplify the fantasy here

like very few other

amusement parks

Little kids love it here--

no scares even on

Halloween

They changed her race

The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe

into a dark-skinned lady

Sort of courts the stereotype--

"so many children

she didn't know what to do"

Slowly gradually

the wildfires are

being contained

We still must endure

the insidious smoke

Let's pretend

It's a happy ending

As they say in

East London

Topiary dragon

did inhale

smoking still

Smokey phantasms

camp followers

of the Northern wildfires

October 2017