PROJECT X O and Etc.

Sunday the first of October

Art installation and

graphic considerations

 along Washington Street

This one is a green tea-bagger

Nice refraction

The calendar in inexorable

but mild daylight prevails

In situ

re-refracted

in the detritus

of a former XO vessel

I left the bulky tea bag in

so no one would assume

it was pee,

just healthy green tea

Down at the Port

the Ferry gleams

as it steams toward

San Francisco

Some palaver on the water

advice to a rafter

not a rescue

Something ineffably

buoyant in the bustle

come October

The afternoon take a macabre turn

On the menu

at the fear factory

Fear of the young

New Wave sidewalk

Two-tone

food wrapper

At Oakland Metro

Opera House

The gruesome posters

have evaporated

into the matte black gloom

A last two

include last night,

I've been under the ice

but I found my way out

And one huge poster

for HOODSLAM

Because this is where

the wild things go

The bestial

Yikes

The feral

Venomous times

Loud-mouths

and masochists

of every sort

Back to Washington

Strangeness

This is all new

lapels, a skirt and hairy legs

Open to interpretation

Nice lines anyway

pleasant new optics

for my strolls past

Between thought

and expression

Unauthorized street art

prevails

and in fact rules

Taggers gonna tag

Hmmm,

something planned for the parking lot

next to the XO location

Development never sleeps

when there's the smell of napalm

or capital returns

in the air

Green Tea XO

in place

now in the shade 

an hour or so lady

Drink me

The day capitulates

The Sinister

Ministry

Sex traffic of the underage

is  hideous and seriously criminal,

We pay police a good salary

to fight such depravity,

But Oakland cops used their

punitive authority

over a young girl

to share her among police departments

Including Richmond cops,

Contra Costa county cops,

a soon-to-retire-cop in Alameda,

Then an Oakland cop committed suicide

 after the suspicious death of his wife,

He turned the girl out originally

and exposed the cop sex ring

in a suicide note,

Higher up cops interrogated the girl

blamed her for the suicide

and browbeat and threatened her as

 she destroyed evidence

on her smart phone in front of them,

The chief resigned

the prom queen mayor

 called it all as "frat-house behavior"

The hired "angry school principal" type 

who employed the Trump tactic of acting

 offended and angry at legit press questions,

She promoted the wicked bastard cops

instead of any punishment anywhere,

No they will have long long

retirements at even higher grade pensions

How ficking noir

1 October 2017

The Moral of the Sad Tale

Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi

4 October

I went to Mass on a hunch

prayed to Saint Francis always a hero

It helped me recover from the trauma

of discovering and dealing with

the dead bird yesterday

But what will help all living things

recover from the bird's death

and countless like it?

The reason that

the black coffin shaped tour bus

seemed like an omen

an unusual image for me

to stop and grab,

it seemed to be an omen

 instantaneously

in deja vu retrospect

Perhaps because it was parked

outside the reviled Hyatt,

the most inconsiderate,

the most anti-feng sui

the drive-way sidewalk menace

that got corrupt politicians

to sign off on their design

that robs downtown of sunlight

everyday of the year

It's eastern faced

is a big mirror of the morning sun

a hazard for flying birds

on a very busy route

from hills and estuary to the port

I have found and shown

here a dead hummingbird

I once found on its sidewalk

The bird yesterday

was catty-corner from

the precarious façade

where it could have

landed after it caromed

off the lethal windows

Every wild bird

is precious

every senseless loss

a tragedy

A prayer for our society

of reckless convenience

and blank indifference


May God have mercy on us

The feast is today

the blessing of the animals

happens Saturday,

After Mass

I walked on to Lakeside

to enjoy a bask in the sunny grass

you can just glimpse the

cathedral on the horizon

4 October 2017

The Sad Tale of Today (redux)

Nature morte


1.

A Flaneur tries not
to let the sheer miserabilism

overtake his joie de vivre

continuing along escape routes

is not always certain to be jolly

A sentimental example,

yet a scarecrow represents

the inexorable mathematics

of survival

Scare away the crows

and all the birds

there is danger here

Agricultural

 superstructure

over the primordial stratum

of tooth and claw

I noted with dread

a massive anonymous

black tour bus

It seemed to have

a sinister feeling

attached to it

It was an omen

Then the intrusion of nature's

constant dance of  life and death

Apprehended with the horror

of sentience

A spectacular wild bird

was lying dead

atop the BART escalator,

its incarnadine head and stole

it's striking claw

animated with vibrant life

scant minutes ago

Luckily I had plastic bags

one for my hand the other

for his sad body bag,

Down at the BART booth

the guy couldn't be concerned,

he indicated the trash bin

I took a fast Richmond train out

to await my Rockridge train

at MacArthur station

away from the experience

away from the bird

 its tragic cadaver

2.

I cling to my smile

against all sorrow

As all must

Take a steel capsule

to Rockridge

in the golden noontime

The aesthetics of everyday

commerce

A Picasso face

Not amused

The eye of course

the mouth

as cubist as une dame

d'avignon

Toughest audience really

no vestigial sense of humor

October dues are due

at the secretive hall

Magic mushrooms

make me as sleepy

as the next guy

I try to be

heteronormative

 but I draw the line

at cisgender

The missionary position

with a member

of the opposite sex

Tried and true

leads to children

Ban gas-powered cars

I am approaching

mellow

And look who's here

Blinky!

you old cad

A man for all seasons

particularly the one at hand

Nothing like a familiar face

from long long ago

to brighten-up my mood

If you go into the fields today

you'd better not go alone

I returned to the market

 after dark

for a bottle of XO brandy

The moon was nearly full

psychic Vampires

and sugar junkies

roamed the fleeting streets

Tuesday
3 October 2017