Union Square Christmas Revisited

this year, can you guess what it was?

I love a deserted arcade-- closed on Sunday

They're now selling penguin meat in supermarkets
--how ghastly

The Glitterati

Once upon a time in the lobby of the St Francis Hotel

The light and the dark side of Union Square

Everyone was having a good time under the tree

even the perfume spritzers were laughing

Bruce Springsteen and family joined the holiday skaters

Sunny and warm as only a California drought can be

A Yuletide blast-off for young and old...

The band played all the old holiday favorites like

"Brand New Leopard Skin Santa Hat"

The maw of Macy's
holiday shoppers buzz the hive
On the crowded sidewalk a little boy stopped me
 by holding a plush toy snake up to my crotch.
He giggled with delight as Mom herded him off
while avoiding eye-contact with me. 

So I tucked into a nook on a side street of my mind for a cup of cheer

and a peaceful smoke with some suave old pals of mine

Coming soon the ecclesiastical side of Xmas.

22 December 2013

Oakland Rainy Day Drive-by

Traveling lady

always dressed in white

tell me Mam where'd

you spend last night

The Blues

nothing but a feeling

here's to all the noble

and struggling people

of Oakland

Bodybuilders shy away

from this rainy day

There was just a big fire claiming

36 lives in a converted where-house

a few miles away in this direction,

Young people desperate for a toe-hold

in the SF bay area

packed-in for dangerous living

 

Tall gal from the vintage store

poses her friends for a photo

modeling sneakers

Piedmont avenue

I see her on bus all over town

dressed in white outfits and heels

and white bags of spare clothes

We've spoken, she was educated

 and charming and like myself

a loner content in her own company

A sprawling new shopping center

mushroomed up where a dormant place

long stood empty

Amid the golf course

 and the graves

Rockridge

undergoing furious

reconstruction

Farther along Pleasant Valley

land reclaimed for organic farming

A quixotic gesture

for survival

against the relentless

automobile traffic

The facades of the past

dissolve in the carbonized

atmosphere

whimsical coral reefs go

the way of the sunken chest

October 2016

Trains On the Shoreline In the Rain

(kinoscopic click-through

motion picture)

First rain of the year in October

I'm down by the tracks

doing my investigations

October 2016